Weakness, Failure, and Faith

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If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn to Mark chapter 9.
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And it is sometimes my desire, and tonight is one of those times, we're going to look at a large section of text, and possibly larger than we'll be able to actually get through, but at least we're going to read it, because I want to show a connection point between verse 14 all the way down to verse 50.
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That is the, that will end this chapter for us.
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Now again, I make no promises that we'll get through it all, and I know some of you probably laugh to even think that I think we will.
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But, but I do have to say this before we read.
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Verses 14 to 29 tell the story of the young boy who had a demon, and the apostles were unable to expel the demon, and Jesus comes, and the father says that if you can do this, and Jesus says if I can, as if to say, you know, what do you mean if, you know, and the man said I believe, help my unbelief.
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I want to mention Lee Frazier, who obviously is here, several years ago preached for us, and he preached on a Wednesday night, and he preached that text, and it's still available on our sermon audio, and I know it is, because I listened to it this week in my preparation for tonight.
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So, Lee, I want to thank you again for preaching that text, and if anyone is interested in going back and listening to what he had to say, he did a wonderful sermon on the subject of dealing with doubt, and I think that was really good, and that is a good lesson to learn from this text.
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But what I want to show is something a little different, even though we are going to touch on that.
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I want to show the connection point between four events that happen in this section of Mark.
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What we're going to see is we're actually going to see a series of failures, a series of failures, and before I dive in, I want to make this very well understood.
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I recognize that we all fail, and we all have weaknesses, and I say that because when we describe the apostles' failure, sometimes it can almost seem as if we're sitting on a high horse looking down at them as if we've never failed, right? Like we're looking at their failures like, oh, look at what they've done, and we haven't.
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Well, no, we have.
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We all have, and that's what I think we can learn from this, is that there's going to be a series of failures here.
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There's going to be a failure to heal the demon-possessed boy.
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There's going to be a failure to understand the resurrection.
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There's going to be a failure to be humble, and we're going to see what that means, and they're going to fail to recognize that the kingdom is bigger than their small group.
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All of those failures come in a row, and Jesus is gracious to them but still points out to them where their failures lie, and so that's what I want us to see as we read through this text, so let's read beginning at verse 14.
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It says, And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.
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And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him, and he asked them, What are you arguing about with them? And someone from the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute, and whenever it sees him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
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So I asked your disciples to cast him out, and they were not able.
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And he, that being Jesus, answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.
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And they brought the boy to him, and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
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And Jesus asked his father, How long has this been happening to him? And he said, From childhood.
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And it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him.
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But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
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And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible for one who believes.
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Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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And when Jesus saw a crowd came together, 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.
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And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said he is dead.
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But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
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And when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast him out or cast it out? And Jesus said to them, This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
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Some of your Bibles say prayer and fasting.
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And I'll mention that later, why the ESV only says prayer there.
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Now, moving to verse 30, they went on from there and passed through Galilee.
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They're going southward, down back through Galilee.
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They were up north.
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This is where the the transfiguration had happened.
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They're now moving south through Galilee.
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And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.
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And when he is killed after three days, he will rise.
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But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
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That's the second failure, the fear to ask Jesus what he was referring to.
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Verse 33.
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And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they argued with one another about who was the greatest.
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That's the third failure, is this argument about who is the greatest.
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And he sat down, and he called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all.
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And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.
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Verse 38.
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John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us, but Jesus said, Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me, for the one who is not against us is for us.
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That's the failure number four, not recognizing that just because they weren't in their group didn't mean that they weren't following Christ.
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For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
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Now verses 42 to 50 actually connect back to verse 37, and I'm going to show this in a little while, because they're actually, if you read this in Matthew's account, and even Luke's account, this ties back into what Jesus was saying right before this, and that's about receiving the little child.
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Okay, so read verse 42 now, he says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, notice the connection there back to verse 37, he said it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, and if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, for it's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire.
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And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, and if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out, it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
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For everyone will be salted with fire, salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how will it be made salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
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Let's pray.
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Father, again, thank you for your word, now that we have read it, help us to understand it better by your grace and mercy in Christ's name, amen.
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Lot of text, lot to get through, and as I said, I'm not necessarily trying to do some type of a sprint to the end here, but I do want us to, like I've said in the past, see the connection points in these texts, and if in the weeks ahead I feel the need to go back and draw anything else out, we will, but the four things I want us to see tonight are the four things I mentioned as we're reading.
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First is the failure of the apostles to heal the demon-possessed boy, and you might say, well, why would you say that's a failure? Well, they have been healing others.
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They have been casting out demons.
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We read that, that when they went out and preached the gospel and came back, they said that the demons were subject to them, but now for some reason, they're not.
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For some reason, it's not happening, and so we're going to start by looking at that story.
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Remember where we are in the context of the story? Jesus was up on the mountain of transfiguration.
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He was with Peter, James, and John, so he was away from them when this event started, and that's part of the issue, because Jesus was not with them when this began.
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So when we pick up at verse 14 in the ESV, it starts with the conjunct, it says, and when they came, that's Jesus, John, Peter, and James, and when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.
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So Jesus has left.
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He's taken the three, Peter, James, and John.
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He's had that moment on the mount of transfiguration.
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He's returning.
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You remember the last thing he said before we ended last week was he said, don't tell them what has happened until, you know, this is not for them.
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This is for you guys, but now they've come back, and while they were gone, a demon-possessed young man was brought to the disciples, and the scribes are there making it worse by arguing with them.
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They're not able to cast the demon out.
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They're not able to do the miracle, and the scribes are...
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It doesn't say what they're arguing about, but the assumption is the scribes are challenging them, likely because of their inability to do what this person has come to them for.
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This person has come for a demon removal, a demon, if you will, exorcism.
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I don't know if that's really the right word.
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That's a word that typically is associated with this, but to do away with the demon, and so there's this moment, verse 15, and immediately all the crowd when they saw him were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.
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Now, the him in this is Jesus.
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That's the pronoun there is tied back to Jesus, and he asked them, what are you arguing about with them? What's going on? What's this commotion? What's the fuss? And someone from the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought my son to you for he has a spirit that makes him mute, and whenever it seizes him, it throws him down.
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He foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
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So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.
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That sets the whole scene.
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This man has brought his child, young man, to them, and we're going to see later that he says that this has been happening since he was a little boy, so he's obviously older now, and he says, I brought him to you.
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You weren't here.
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So the disciples notice he says that they says, I brought my son to you, but you weren't here.
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So brought him here, and the spirit makes him mute, and I just for a moment, I want to say something about that, and this may seem like an aside, but and perhaps it is, I have to say it.
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We don't always know what causes certain maladies, and there are often quick judgments about people who suffer certain maladies to assume certain things like demon possession, and I just, you know, I have dealt with this in other contexts where people say, well, that sickness is demon possession, or that sickness is demon possession.
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The Bible does make it clear that there are certain sicknesses that are sicknesses, like it mentions epilepsy and things like that, but there are times where demons will use those things and hurt people with those diseases, so can it be both? Yes, it can be both.
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It doesn't always have to be both, or just because someone's sick, or just because someone's mute, or just because someone has some form of mental issue doesn't mean that they are demon possessed, and some people believe everybody who has any mental deficiency is demon possessed, and that's an unfair assessment, but for whatever reason, this father is confident that this is demon-influenced sickness.
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He's mute because the demon makes him mute.
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He has a spirit who makes him mute, and the spirit seizes him, throws him down, he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
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Now, I can only imagine being this boy's father.
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I can only imagine.
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I have, I see different issues with my children and different things they have to face, and I think sometimes how I pray that they wouldn't have to face those things, wouldn't have to struggle with the things that they have to struggle with, and I couldn't imagine if my son was throwing himself down.
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I heard one preacher talking about this text.
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He said, imagine how many concussions he must have probably experienced.
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I think it was MacArthur who mentioned that.
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He said, imagine how many times this child has probably had concussions from just throwing, the demon just throwing him to the ground and trying to destroy him.
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You'll notice he says later, he says he throws him in the fire, throws him in the water.
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This demon is trying everything possible to destroy this child, and yet God has been gracious to keep this child alive.
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But just to get to the heart of the father for a moment to consider what he's going through.
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And he says, I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able.
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Doesn't say they didn't try.
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It says when they tried, it didn't work.
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That's a powerful thing.
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And verse 19 is highly debated among the commentators and even among the different preachers and different things.
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And I want to give you my thought and I want to say right away, I'm not making a absolute statement.
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I'm making a statement of what I think.
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And anytime I do that, if I give you a thing, just like last week, when I talked about the transfiguration and how I think that could possibly be a understanding of what Jesus meant when he said, you know, some of you will not die until you see the kingdom come with power.
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I think that's what that meant.
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But again, I could be wrong about that.
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That could be related to the millennium, could be related to other things.
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I'm fine with that.
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And same way with this, but here's where the argument comes in in verse 19.
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In verse 19, he says, oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.
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Who is he talking to? Some people say he can't be talking about the disciples because he calls them faithless and the disciples have faith.
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But I have a little different understanding because what I think it was R.C.
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Sproul said, he's talking to the scribes.
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They're the faithless ones.
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But in this context, if you read the whole sentence, he says, oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.
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Who's he talking to when he says bring him to me? The father could be because that's the one he was just talking to, but he could also be talking about the disciples because the father just said, I tried, they tried and didn't have it.
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And who is Jesus chastising? He's chastising them.
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He's not saying they don't have any faith.
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And that's the point I want to make.
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If you go back to the time when they were on the boat together and Jesus calmed the storm and they were all scared and Jesus said, why do you lack faith? Right? Why do you lack faith? He's not saying they don't have any faith at all, but he is challenging their lack of faith in this moment.
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He's challenging their lack of faith in this situation.
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So I do think the disciples can be in view here.
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And this is why I say when I talk about failure, I'm not saying that I wouldn't, I haven't had the same failure.
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I'm going to, when we get down to verse 24, I'm going to tell you, I, I, verse 24 is one of the most important verses in my life because there are times when I pray that prayer, God, I believe help my unbelief.
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Right? So when I say, I think the disciples failed in their faith.
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I do want to say I do too.
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I'm not in any way saying I'm on my high horse looking down at these men who failed, but I think they're in view here.
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I think the view is Jesus.
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Jesus is saying that they had, they had the power to do this.
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They had the ability.
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He had given them the ability, but they didn't, they didn't believe in the moment.
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Was it because Jesus wasn't with them? Don't know.
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Was it because this was something different than they'd ever faced? Don't know.
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It doesn't tell us that.
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We can come to certain assumptions, but we can't really arrive at any foredrawn conclusions, but they bring the boy to Jesus, verse 20.
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And they being the disciples, bring the boy to Jesus.
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And when the spirit saw him immediately, it convulsed the boy, fell on the ground, rolled about foaming at the mouth.
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And I imagine that's what it did with the apostles.
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Maybe again, I'm giving some sanctified imagination here.
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Maybe it's scared.
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Maybe fear.
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What does fear often do? It brings down.
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We fear it.
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Maybe this moment brought fear.
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Verse 21.
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And Jesus asked the father, how long has this been happening to him? Interesting question.
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You would think Jesus would just automatically just heal the boy.
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No, he, how this is, this is bad.
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How long has this bad thing been a part of his life? And you say, why does it matter? Well, I think it matters for this.
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And just kind of what I said earlier, he says from childhood, we don't know how old this guy is, but he's the boy is old enough that childhood is saying since childhood, meaning he's old enough to be considered maybe an adolescent, right? He's old enough to have been dealt with this for a while.
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That's why I said, how many concussions has he had? How many times has he bitten his tongue to the point where it bled? How many times has he bruised his body being thrown down? How many times has he coughed up water from having thrown himself into water or had to put a salve on burns because of throwing himself in the fire? How many times has that happened? And Jesus is saying, how long has this been? And this is where he says from childhood, he cast him into the fire, into the water.
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And then this key statement, he says, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us.
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And Jesus keys in as often he does.
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He keys in on a specific phrase.
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And he says, if notice what he says, verse 23, and Jesus said to him, if you can now in the ESV, it has an exclamation point there.
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I actually think a better punctuation would be a question mark because I think Jesus is asking if I can, as if I can't.
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Like, what is the if? Why did you? Like, I'll never forget R.C.
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Sproul was, he was on a conference with other guys.
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And one of the guys said, was asking the question, he says, if God is sovereign, why? And R.C.
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said, stop right there.
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He said, don't say if, say because God is sovereign.
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Because if you say if, that's as if you're saying he is or he isn't.
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He is, say because God is sovereign, right? Like that, you don't put the if in there.
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And so Jesus is challenging.
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Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible for those who believe.
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Now, again, I have to stop here only to point out the fact that that verse, verse 23, has been completely absconded with by the health and wealth, name it and claim it crowd who believe that all believers are supposed to have perfect health.
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And if you don't, it's because you lack faith or all believers are supposed to have perfect prosperity.
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And if you don't, it's because you have faith.
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I heard something really interesting recently.
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Someone said somebody's child was sick and a health and wealth teacher told the parent, well, they're sick because you don't believe enough.
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And the parent said to the health and wealth teacher, well, why don't you believe enough and you heal him? And if I don't have enough faith, why don't you have enough faith? And he said, well, that's not how it works.
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So the blame is not on the teacher, but on the parent who had an imperfect faith.
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And such a it is such a dangerous thing to misunderstand what Jesus is saying here and to apply the the the statement that Jesus makes here to a universal health and wealth hermeneutic, because that's what it becomes, a universal health and wealth understanding of the Bible.
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But Jesus is making a point about faith that is important.
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He is saying, and he does say, all things are possible for one who believes.
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He is saying there is something about faith here that's missing.
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He just called, as I said, I think it's the apostles, but could be the whole group, could be everyone, could be everyone in that generation faithless.
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He called them, you know, faithless generation.
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What's the problem? You lack faith.
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And the man doesn't deny that he lacks faith.
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That's the great part.
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Verse 24.
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Immediately, he says, I believe.
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Help my unbelief, which sounds like a contradiction, unless unless you can pray that prayer yourself.
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As I said, having prayed that prayer myself, I know, at least I think I know exactly what he means, because there are times where I know God can change it, but I don't know that he will.
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I don't know if it's part of his plan.
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There have been times where I've stood at the bedside of a sick person or next to someone who's going through a tremendously difficult situation, and I know God can change it, but I don't know if that's his will, or it's becoming more and more obvious in the moment that his will isn't to change it.
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I remember years ago being at the hospital bed with, some of you may remember, there was a time, 20 years ago, there was a man here.
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His name was Don, but I can't remember his last name.
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There's two older men named Don.
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Pat, do you remember? They were good friends, and they spent time together, and they're both named Don, and I can't think of, now it's Mike's, we're eight up with Mike's.
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There was one time we were eight up with Don's.
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We had like six Don's.
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Well, I remember going to see one of the Don's at the old St.
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Luke's Hospital, which is now St.
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Vincent South, and I was in the hospital with him, and I had somebody else with me, and I prayed for his healing, because he was sick, but I said, God, I pray that you'll heal him, but I also pray that whatever your will is in his life, that your will would be done, and that you would give him hope and faith in you to be able to endure whatever it is that you have, and as I left the hospital, the person I was with who had been in a charismatic church said to me, isn't that wrong to pray, Lord, let your will be done? It's always God's will to heal him, and I said, I don't know that.
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I don't know that it's always God's will to heal, because if it was always God's will to heal, some people would never die.
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Eventually, you're gonna die, right? And so I have to be honest and say, I don't always know, so when I pray, if I ever come to pray for you in the hospital, or if you come to pray for me, I would encourage you, always pray God's will be done.
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Jesus commands us to pray thy will be done on heaven as it is on earth, or on earth as it is in heaven, and even we're told that when we pray, that we are to pray in Jesus' name, which means according to his will.
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And so this isn't, I believe, or I don't believe this is a blanket promise to heal everyone or heal everything, but Jesus is saying to the man, don't think in terms of if I can, but certainly I can.
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Don't think in those terms, the power is there, there's no doubt.
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And the man says, well, I believe, help my unbelief, help me overcome whatever it is I lack, and I think that prayer is, again, a prayer I could pray every day.
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Lord, help me in the area I lack, help me in my unbelief.
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And when Jesus saw that a crowd was running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, you mutant deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.
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And after crying and convulsing him terribly, it came out and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said he is dead, but Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up and he arose.
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Now, it doesn't say he was dead, I don't think he died and Jesus raised him, even though certainly that's possible.
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The text says it looked like he was dead, so we shouldn't read too much into it in that regard.
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But here's the part that's interesting, as if that wasn't interesting, but the part that really is interesting in regard to getting back to the disciples, it says, and when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast him out? You know, we tried, obviously they had put out the effort to try, it didn't work, but Jesus comes in, he asks one question, how long has this been going on? And then cast the demon out.
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And Jesus gives a statement here that again, some differ on what he means here, but he said to them, this kind, meaning this kind of spirit cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
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And some say, and fast, even the ESV says and fasting in the footnotes, if you go down to the bottom of the page, it'll reference that.
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And so again, this is where there are times where people misunderstand and read too much in or try to take this apart and they say, well, here's the situation, if you are dealing with a sickness and God's not healing you, then what you need to do is pray more, and fast more, and that will get God to heal you.
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And again, I don't think that's what Jesus is saying.
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I don't think that's the point here, but it does teach us something.
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It teaches us that in regard to the spirits that the apostles dealt with, there were different kinds.
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Because he says this kind, this kind of what? This kind of spirit, this particular one, the one that does what this one was doing, can only be driven out by prayer and fasting.
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Now, here's the thing about the fasting.
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The word and fasting is not found in two ancient manuscripts, which do happen to be the, among the most ancient and some would consider the most reliable of manuscripts, that would be Aleph and B, which are the names of the manuscripts.
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And so in many modern texts, that word is left out of this sentence because that phrase is not there.
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And here's where I land on that.
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I think that it is, I think that it is very possible that the word and fasting should be there because it's in almost all the rest of the manuscript.
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And I'm not the kind that counts noses and says, well, if the majority of manuscripts say it, that's right, that's not the way I do it.
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But I do say if the only ones that are missing it are just those two, then I would be more inclined to receive it.
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However, here is one issue I do have with it.
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Jesus didn't fast.
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And so it does sort of take an interesting, and you say, well, Jesus didn't have to fast, he's son of God.
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I get that and I understand that argument.
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But he just cast out the demon and some might say, well, he didn't pray.
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We don't know that because it didn't say he didn't pray, but certainly there was no fasting involved.
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And it seems like an interesting interjection to throw in fasting at that point.
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And also something else, and this is just something to consider.
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We don't normally see fasting as a methodology for petitioning God.
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And maybe you see it differently, and maybe you could show me a text where it's different.
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Fasting is a discipline and it's a way that we grow in our faith and things like that.
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But to fast in petition is something that we would be seeing here, that the prayer would be accompanied by fasting as a way of petitioning God.
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And perhaps that's true.
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Perhaps that's what Jesus is saying.
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And it certainly would have to be what it means, is that it would be a form of petitioning God.
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But I'm not absolutely certain of that.
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So should it be there? I don't know.
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Well, it's interesting because the parallel passages are in Matthew 17 and Luke 9 for this particular story.
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And it does not, I'm looking at them right now.
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I don't believe it mentions, does it in Matthew? Okay, so let's just look at Matthew 17, verse 20.
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He said to them, because of your little faith, again, and there he is talking to disciples.
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So that kind of goes back to my argument about who he's talking to when he talks about the faithless.
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He says, because of your little faith, because they asked, why could we not cast them out? For truly I say to you, if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you will say this amount and move from here and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.
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But where does it say fasting, brothers? 21? Okay, I didn't print it.
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I'm sorry, I didn't turn there.
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Read 21 to me, please.
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Prayer and fasting.
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But I think, and I would have to look it up.
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I think that's another place where there's a debate as to whether or not the word fasting should be there.
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But again, I have no problem with it being there.
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That's what I was saying earlier.
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I just wonder in what way does it affect our petitioning God? Does fasting increase the intensity of our petition? I've heard people just say that.
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No, I agree.
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I think fasting is valuable.
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Yeah.
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But it's that fasting for the purpose of growth or for petition? That's where my question is.
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Yeah, it fits with the petition.
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If you're praying for something, have you fasted over it? Okay, yeah, in that sense.
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Yeah, okay.
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That makes sense.
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Well, I don't know why I didn't have verse 21 printed because my next, I have all the parallel passages printed.
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I preach off these.
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People say it looks like football coaches, like a football coach has their thing.
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Yeah, so, but I had, because the next one is Matthew 17, 22.
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I don't know why I didn't have verse 21.
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But again, should we pray and should we fast? The answer is absolutely.
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Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter six, when you fast, fast like this, when you pray, pray like this.
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So the command to pray and to fast are in the scripture and their expectations for believers.
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I would ask this, how many of us, you don't have to put your hand up or anything, but how many of us do make a practice of fasting, moreover than just praying? It's a really, really serious.
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Okay.
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Something like that, you almost shut down, it's almost automatically shut down and you just want to pray.
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Yeah, it's interesting when I do, and I think I've told you guys this before, when I do baptisms, I fast with the baptismal candidate.
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We normally fast on the Thursday before their baptism.
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And I know that sounds like a weird arbitrary choice, but I choose Thursday because Friday and Saturday are typically more difficult days to fast because families normally have things to do Friday and Saturday.
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So the Thursday prior to a baptism, I invite people who are being baptized to fast.
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And it's for the purpose of preparation, preparing for that moment.
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It goes all the way back to the Didache, which was an early Christian writing which said that the early apostles, when they, or the early church, not the early apostles, but when the church would welcome in a catechumen, a person who was being taught the faith, and when they were going to baptize them, they would have the person being baptized and the person doing the baptism and anyone else in the church who was desired to fast along with that person.
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So certainly fasting is a big part of our faith.
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So just because that word comes into question here from a, what is it, a manuscript perspective, doesn't mean that fasting should be called into question.
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Andy, you look like you have a thought, or maybe I'm just misinterpreting.
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Okay.
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All right.
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So very quickly, just looking at the next part, because moving from that, it goes immediately to the next situation where it says they went out from there and passed through Galilee and he did not want anyone to know for he was teaching his disciples.
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This is a private lesson to his disciples.
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He was teaching his disciples saying to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him.
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And when he is killed after three days, he will rise.
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But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him.
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In Matthew's gospel, Matthew 17, it says, and they were greatly distressed.
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But in Luke's gospel, it says something even stranger.
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And I hesitate to use the word strange to talk about scripture.
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But when you're comparing the text, sometimes things do seem strange.
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And this is what I mean.
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It says in Luke's gospel, it says, but they did not understand the saying and it was concealed from them.
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So they may not perceive it.
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This is Luke 9, 45.
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And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
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So there's something happening from God's perspective and from their perspective.
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From their perspective, they're hearing Jesus say, I'm going to be delivered in the hands of sinful men.
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And they're going to kill me.
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And then after three days, I'm going to rise.
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But there's something on a spiritual level that's being concealed from them.
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They don't yet understand it.
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They're afraid to ask.
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And somehow there's a blinder or a concealment that has been placed upon them so that they might not perceive it.
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So what is the failure here? Well, I do note that the failure, both in Mark's gospel and Luke's gospel, it says they were afraid to ask him.
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They were afraid to ask him.
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I wonder if they should have been afraid to ask him.
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Was it right that they were afraid to inquire of the Lord? And I would, intuitively, I would say, no, they should not have been afraid to ask.
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But what would make them afraid to ask about this? Well, go back to the story of Jesus and Peter.
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When Jesus, when Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of God, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven, remember? And then immediately he says, I'm going to be taken.
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I'm going to be killed.
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And Peter says, this shall never happen to you.
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And what did Jesus say? Get thee behind me, Satan.
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That might be why they're afraid.
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They were afraid they did understand what he was saying.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Peter understood before, and Peter rebuked him, and Peter got a rebuke in return.
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Get thee behind me, Satan.
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And like Lee said, that's a good point.
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They might be afraid they know what he's saying, but they don't understand how this is going to play.
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They've never seen this before.
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That's right.
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So there's fear here.
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I want to say something.
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Sometimes you may have heard it said, and you may have even said it yourself.
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Some people will say fear is the opposite of faith.
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Fear is not the opposite of faith because one person can have fear and faith at the same time, but fear does cause us to struggle with our faith.
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And that's what we see.
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Paul, I thought you had your hand up.
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I'm sorry.
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The fear is what's driving this failure.
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As I said, going back to the boy who was thrown down in front of them, foaming at the mouth, why did they fail to cast out the demon? We don't know, but it might have been fear.
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Here we know they are afraid to ask, but they're not afraid to argue over which one of them is the best.
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And that's the next part.
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And that's why I want to show you this connection point because if you look beginning at verse 33, and they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
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Now, I just, it boggles my mind because they couldn't cast out the demon.
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Just a few days before that, a week or two before that, Peter was called Satan.
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Get behind me, Satan.
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They couldn't understand Jesus' own words when he said he's going to die and resurrect in three days.
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And yet they still have the gall.
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They still have the temerity to argue which one of them is the greatest.
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Boys will be boys.
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Well, it's funny.
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There is, there's a lot of truth to that.
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R.C., when he was talking about this, he said, he said, men are not inclined to simply be pleased with being good.
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Like if you're a good athlete or a good worker or whatever.
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Men want to be the best.
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They want their name on the plaque.
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They want the number one trophy.
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They want the glory of being great, not just being good at something.
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And there's, that goes back to what you said, Ann, sort of a boys will be boys.
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Men have a desire for glory.
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And some might argue, well, I don't, I don't give myself to that.
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I don't want glory.
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Well, maybe you are the exception.
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But the rule is that men want to catch the biggest fish or the men want to climb the highest mountain.
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Men want to kill the deer with the most antlers, you know, or the largest rack of antlers.
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Why do we put animal heads on the wall? To say, I look at what I did.
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And he sat down, verse 35, very important.
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He sat down.
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It was the, and this, I think most of us know this, but it was the posture of the rabbi of Jesus's day to teach sitting.
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That was the formal position of teaching.
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It wasn't like this.
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They didn't have whiteboards.
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But when the teacher sat, that was, class was in session.
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Says he sat down, called the 12, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.
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And he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms.
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He said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
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And whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me.
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What's Jesus saying? He's saying that greatness in the kingdom is not what they thought it was.
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Greatness in the kingdom is service and to be a servant.
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Jesus says that of himself.
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I came not to be served, but as one who serves.
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Remember the night before the crucifixion, he takes off his outer robe and he wraps himself in a towel and he washes the disciples' feet.
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And Peter says, you will never wash my feet.
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And he says, if I don't wash your feet, you have no place with me.
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And Peter says, well, then wash my head and everything else.
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And Jesus says, the one who is clean, explain one who's clean needs not to rebathe, but only to wash his feet.
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But Jesus uses the illustration like many good teachers.
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He pulls an illustration out of real life.
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He pulls a child up and he puts him there.
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And he says, this child, would you receive this child in my name? Well, what does that mean? Whoever receives one such child in my name.
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He's saying, you all think you're great, but you're actually just ambassadors.
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You're going out in my name, not because you're great.
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There is no such thing.
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And this is going to sound weird.
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I hope I say it right.
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There is no such thing as a great pastor, great preacher, great evangelist.
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There's only a great Jesus.
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And we can talk about our heroes.
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You know, the men, R.C.
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Sproul, I've mentioned his name a few times tonight, men that have blessed us by their ministry.
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But any one of those men who is truly a servant of Christ would say he is merely an ambassador for the king.
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And the greatness that should be put on display is not his own, but the greatness of his king.
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And Jesus says, when they receive you, they receive me.
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See, we are just ambassadors.
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And Jesus says, whoever receives me receives not me, but the one who sent me.
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That's an important statement by itself.
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The end of verse 37, because Jesus saying, I came as an ambassador as well, because Jesus came to point people to the father, says, anyone who has seen me has seen the father.
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And so if you receive Christ, who are you receiving? The father.
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If you reject Christ, who are you rejecting? Think about when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees in John's gospel, and they were saying things about Jesus.
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And Jesus says, but I have come that you might know the father.
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They rejected him.
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They rejected the father.
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By the way, this is why, and this may seem like a weird side note, but I'm going to say it.
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This is why when people say, oh, that person loves God, but he doesn't believe in Jesus.
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That is false.
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Because if you reject Christ, you cannot love God.
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Modern traditional rabbinic Jews who reject Jesus don't love God.
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Muslims who pray to Allah but reject Jesus do not love God.
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Because Jesus said, if you do not receive me, or actually, if you receive me, you receive him who sent me.
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What's the opposite? If you don't receive him, you're rejecting the one who sent him.
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All right, well, we're out of time, and I'm not going to get to the final failure, but we have plenty to do for next week, because we're going to look beginning next week at verse 38, where Jesus talks about this last failure, and it is the failure, some might call it the failure of sectarianism.
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That might be too big of an idea, but the thought is the disciples see a group not following them.
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And Jesus says, yeah, but they believe in me.
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And you say, well, how did that even come up? And again, I so much miss the tie-in.
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They just were saying, we're the greatest.
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Which one of us is the greatest? Which one of us is the best of the best? And now there's a group over here that doesn't follow us.
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Notice it doesn't say it doesn't follow Jesus.
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It says it doesn't follow us.
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That's that fourth failure.
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All right, so we'll talk more about that next week.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank you for this time to study your word.
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I pray, oh God, that we would be ministered to by your word, ministered to in your word, and that we, like the man who brought his son to Jesus, would be able to honestly say, Lord, we do believe, help our unbelief.
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And where we fail, where our lack of faith causes us to fail, like the apostles who failed over and over, Lord, help us to remember that it is we, it is not we who hold on to you, but you who hold on to us.
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And while these men failed, they became, they became men who turned the world upside down.
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And Lord, I pray that you would use us even in our failures to do what you've called us to do in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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The what? There were four.
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Okay, the first one was the fail to heal the demon-possessed boy.
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The second one was the fail to understand the death and resurrection.
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The third one was the failure of humility when they said, who's the greatest? That's the last one we looked at.
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And then the fourth one is the fail, the failure of sectarianism, or you might, if you want to write it differently, the failure of not seeing the kingdom is larger than just them.
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Okay, yeah, there was only four.
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Yeah.
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Is that what's on the ESV? Is that what's on the ESV? I was curious to see whether the ESV was in there.
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No.
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That must mean, I, wow.
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I was curious after Andy read it.
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I knew he read from the New King James.
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I wanted to see if it was.
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You know what, I'm going to bring that out next week.
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That the reason why is it's a textual variant.
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Yeah, there's a little note that said, some versions say, da, da, da, da, da.
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But it's a text, it's a longer textual variant.
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Thank you.
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You're welcome.
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Because I was like, why is it fine? I, again, I always read the cross references, but I don't always like the numbers.
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And I wasn't necessarily studying that, because you probably noticed that.
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Wow, that's interesting.
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Yeah, exactly.
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It seems so strange, because he would love to see him killed.
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But not to do what he wanted.
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Not, not to do the cross, yeah.
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Good to see you, brother.
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We're, we're getting into the last year.
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Because they had so many questions.