Wednesday Night, May 12, 2021 PM

Professor's chapter story, how very often the ends with this, this one is no different.

It's even a little bit more organized as far as off by the casting out of a demon and then we're actually going to and that kind of lets us know what section to read.

So let me pray for us and we'll read the text together. Father, I thank you so much for our time together tonight. I pray that we would call trust in Christ our

Savior, our righteousness by your heart and even if we don't know us with groanings which are too deep just come and you are good.

We are weak and you are strong and you have given for his name and in his name we pray.

I'll be reading verses 37 through 50. On the next day when they had come down from the mountain, met him.

I implore you look on my son for he is my only child and behold a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries.

So I implored How long shall

I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. And as he was still coming the demon threw him down and convulsed him.

Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child and gave him back to his father.

And they were all amazed at the majesty of God. But while everyone marveled at all the things which

Jesus did, he said to his disciples, let these words sink down into your ears for the

Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. Do not follow with us.

The Bible tells us he was demon possessed.

He cast out the demon. The story.

He was arguing. He abused a child, a priest.

Then we have an example of this man casting out a demon and the disciples expressed in the

Word of God in a circle. Is he saying that about the man?

So you see how the argument, the idea, you know the big reveal, surprise at the end.

But very often in the scriptures, because of the way that the Jews would write, they put the most, highlighted it with concentric parallels in a structure called

Chiasm. Well it's in the very middle. And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.

Everyone marveled at all the things. That's the centerpiece and they were marveling and they were amazed at what

Jesus is doing. He's revealing the power of God. The idea of authority.

The next day after what? Right, it's the day after the

Mount of Transfiguration. The majesty of God.

The person of Jesus Christ was and then he saved.

The majesty of God as the only

Savior. Notice in the passage that it all hinges on Jesus.

First the disciples, they can't have a son. Then when it comes to a little child, then you receive the one who sent me.

It's not about the servant, it's about the Savior. It's not about being in the group, the in crowd.

It's not that. Here's this man who would have sons of Sceva who are using it as a superstitious power word.

He actually worshipped Christ. Obviously, he's casting out demons in the name of Jesus.

And it's the majesty of God.

As he says, in this case, there's no other.

Since it's all about him and he's the one who's the invisible

God. He's the real man who reveals the majesty of God.

Since he's the one who reveals the majesty of God, then there's no room for pride.

The disciples have been with Jesus. They can't have a son.

Only Jesus can. And when they when they argue with one another,

God is our father and strong provider.

This doesn't fit.

And they didn't want to talk about it. But it was necessary. He has humbled himself in the muck and the mess surrounded by sinners and and what does he say?

How long shall

I be with you? And come to humble himself.

They're looking for glory. Majesty has come to humble himself.

He's telling them they need to do the same. Elevated.

They think he's come to be lifted up in an honorable way.

No. To sacrifice himself.

Now think about what Jesus is doing in helping this man. Look at this. Look at what happens to this son.

His only child convulses him. So he foams at the mouth and it departs from him with great difficulty bruising him.

And then Jesus helps the man. And there's convulsions and it doesn't work.

That's messy. He's got disciples arguing about who's the greatest and so on.

Jesus is humbling himself. He's come to save sinners. To be saved.

Now he is revealing the majesty of himself.

He is sent from the Father for our need. But it is in this revealing the majesty of God.

Simply his saving work. He is demonstrating the mode in which we receive him.

Humbled and weakness. Blessed are the mourn.

They shall be comforted. Here with his father and this child.

He goes to Jesus. And we are to bring all that needs. And there's a lot that we need.

Our sins and reconciliation with a holy God. We need to grace us with every blessing that he has.

With every advantage of the Holy Spirit. We need with him.

Savior. It's not the method. It's not some glorified.

Some great one among the followers of Jesus to help us.

He's the one. Sometimes we think there's things in our lives that we can handle.

We can fix. We can cleanse. Things that we can save. And we just don't bring it to Christ.

We save him for the big stuff. To pray for daily bread from the

Heavenly Father. And to pray for the forgiveness of our sins. These are basic everyday.

When we assume that, oh, I've got my daily bread covered. I'll just reserve God for the big stuff.

That's not humility. That's not humility. Pray for the daily things.

And humility is the watchword of faith. Here it's very clear that humility is the watchword of faith.

Humility is the great need throughout this text. Salvation comes through the

Savior, not the instrument. If there is salvation, it's because of Jesus.

The good news to somebody's life. To help someone.

Blessings are from God through our Savior Christ. We give him the praise for it.

Was casting out demons in the name of Jesus and the disciples told him to stop it. How are we to apply this?

Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow with us. Or even they're on the outs.

Apparently, didn't they think that he was on the outs with Christ? Because if he's telling

Christ to forbid them, they think he's doing something wrong and against God, right?

Well, they said he doesn't follow with us. So what does that mean? He's not opposed to us.

He's not against us, which I think is a very key when someone's like, well, the answer here is kind of the inclination is to be using this in an ecumenical way.

What does Jesus say? He who is not against us. Okay, that's the important qualification.

He who is not against us. Not against Christ. Not against the person and work of Jesus Christ.

He's on our side. And in this case, this is not a passage that is telling us that Hindu fans of Jesus or even people farther out like Joe Osteen, we're talking about those who are not against the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Clearly, don't forbid him. If he's not against us, he's on our side. And in this case, we see that there are going to be limitations to groups of Christians.

You can't just have one big massive group. There's going to be groups. And in all those who are doing their work, their teaching, their preaching, their ministry in the name of Jesus, for him, in his not against Christ.

Do not forbid him. He's on our side. It's against you.

Unity is in Christ. Again, he's the key, right? So there's unity in Christ. It's against uniformity.

It's against uniformity where everybody has to be in the same way.

That's what it's against. And that's helpful. And I think it gives us a group.

They're not in our group, but boy, they're for Jesus. So we're in it together, right?

And that's the kind of thing that is being encouraged here. And again, that is also an attitude of humility.

It doesn't mean a word. Correct. Receive, okay, is receiving him.

Yes. So he's casting out demons in your name by the power of your person, by the power of who you are, not just a magic word.

It's a very good point. Not a mantra or a magic word.

This is true. Yes, because actually just leaders are calling

Mormons Christians. David Barton.

David Barton, yeah. But he seemed to think that what is a Mormon can also be a

Christian. And so I think that's what Dwight's talking to, isn't he? Because he claims to be a

Christian. Yeah. Well, I think Barton is squish on that because that's and he gets put on the spot.

Now, I would imagine that if somebody sat down with David Barton and kind of laid out some things for him, that he would come around to say, yeah, that's not the same thing.

I wish I could believe that. Yeah. Well, consider Apollos. What a valuable blessing

Apollos ends up being. He was preaching zealously, but he needed some discipleship.

He needed some help. You could also think about, think even just in terms of Timothy and encourage him and guide and direct him and his ministry.

He had to grow up. So I think that or, you know, you could take examples of John Mark and even

Peter himself, wherein we see the failures of men so often.

We just do. I mean, really just publicized, made, you know, everything is just out there.

And we get to see everybody's faults really easily. You know, again, we should pray for the

Savior to bear them up. I think there's a lot of, you know,

I think there's grace. I think there's hope for a lot of them where we see their failures and failings.

So I'm glad I'm not, you know. Okay. Who do we need to pray for?