A Living and Active Faith

through the Gospel of Luke, we
come to a section that really gives us, in Mark’s Gospel, a
much fuller account. And as I realized about halfway
into the week, I would have spent more time quoting Mark than I
would just actually preaching through Mark’s account. And so,
if you will bear with me in our exposition of Luke as we dip
into the Gospel of Mark. I might remind you of the context
that even Mark’s gospel finds this passage. Jesus and two of
his apostles were up on the, pardon me, rather three of his
apostles were up on the mountain and they came across two heavenly
figures as Christ was transfigured. look last week at that word and
found it to be a difficult one even to describe or translate. It just means changed in some
supernatural way. And the gospel writers each took
turns at trying to describe exactly what that looked like. A shining
light. Some kind of glorious vision
of God that they were seeing Jesus with Elijah and Moses up
on the mountain. And we saw that that vision had
a purpose. It was meant to elevate the apostles’
hearts. Those that were there with him.
And yet, even as they walked back down the mountain, they
were commanded not to share this. Their own hearts would have been
encouraged then no doubt they were never the same from that
point on. Yet, Jesus appeals to them to
maintain their silence on exactly what took place on the mountaintop. In a sense, going back down the
mountain meant not only for Christ, but for these three apostles,
back to the real world, back to the ministry, Remember, Peter
wanted to preserve that scene by erecting three tents. One
to park the Lord Jesus in, one to park Moses, and one to park
Elijah. Maybe he wanted to open some
kind of attraction to perpetuate this. Maybe Peter thought that
if everybody could just see this, they’ll be convinced. Jesus wouldn’t
have any of it. Jesus knew that there was ministry
to be done back in the real world. And into the real world, they
immediately find themselves. If you would, if you have Mark’s
Gospel open, look with me, if you would, beginning in verse
14. When they came back to the disciples,
they saw a large crowd around them and some scribes arguing
with them. Immediately when the crowd saw
him, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And
he asked them, what are you discussing with them? One of the crowd answered
him, Teacher, I brought you my son, possessed with a spirit
which makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it
slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth and he grinds
his teeth and stiffens out. I told your disciples to cast
it out and they could not do it. And he answered them and
said, oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long should I put up with you? Bring him to me. They brought the boy to him.
When he saw him immediately, the Spirit threw him into a convulsion. And falling to the ground, he
began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And he asked his
father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said,
from childhood. It has often thrown him into
both the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can
do anything, take pity on us and help us. Jesus said to him,
if you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately,
Du Bois’ father cried out and said, I do believe. Help my unbelief. When Jesus saw that a crowd was
rapidly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to
it, you deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him
and do not enter him again. After crying out and throwing
him into terrible convulsions, it came out. And the boy became
so much like a corpse that most of them said, he is dead. But
Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up. And he got up. When he came into the house,
his disciples began questioning him privately. Why could we not
drive it out? He said to them, this kind cannot
come out by anything but prayer. In a sense, this was back to
the real world. There’s no doubt that the transfiguration
was real. We talked about it last week.
It wasn’t just a vision. It wasn’t just a dream that Peter
had that he communicated somehow to the other apostles that were
with him and to the rest. They saw a real vision. They saw a real transfiguration. And even though we can’t describe
it in human language, It was real and it was profound to them.
But in a sense, this was back to the real world. They weren’t
going to live a life of visions and dreams and fantastic images. They were going to live in this
world. They were going to minister in this world. fantastic discovery
that I made this past week. A number of commentators mentioned
a painting by Raphael. I don’t know who he was and I’d
never seen the painting before. And I’m not much for pictures
of Jesus. I think most of you know that.
But the image that was there was pretty impressive. It pictured, no doubt, the image
of the transfiguration. And that withstanding, the rest
of the image was striking. Because what you had is a picture
of a mountaintop scene with the transfiguration taking place.
The apostles all prostrate on the ground, the three of them.
Jesus meeting with Moses and Elijah. And down at the bottom
of the mountain was another completely different scene, a contrast.
A radically different contrast than it was the contrast of this
scene. The scribes arguing with the rest of the apostles. The
nine. The father laying with the boy in his arms. Pleading
with the apostles to help him. That’s the real world and that’s
where Jesus intended to go. And that’s where we pick up.
All three gospel accounts, synoptics record it. And all three record
a striking response by Jesus. Almost a disdain, a disgust,
a disappointment. But with who? Mark’s Gospel records
it in verse 19 where it says that Jesus answered them, oh,
unbelieving generation. Matthew and Luke both add perverted. Crooked. Oh, unbelieving and
perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? And how
long shall I put up with you? We almost might think of those
little two words as our modern vernacular. How much should I
tolerate you? Jesus wouldn’t care much for
our society that advocates this tolerance, putting up with. Jesus
wondered how long He could do it. These two terms unbelieving and
perverted are borrowed from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 32, 5 says they have
acted corruptly toward God. They are not his children because
of their defect, but they are a perverse and a crooked generation. When Jesus cites this, he meant
to bring that image to the people who were in his hearing. But
who was He talking to? Who did He intend these words
to pierce? Were they addressed to the disciples
who were unable to heal this man? They had already been gifted,
equipped for ministry. This was one of the three things
they were commanded by Christ, after being equipped, to go out
and do. Preach the Gospel, heal the sick,
cast out the demons. Jesus wouldn’t have asked them
if He hadn’t equipped them. Was it to the disciples only?
What about to the scribes? Certainly they were unbelieving.
This grand multitude that was gathering around, certainly they
were unbelieving as well, weren’t they? What about to the man? Who was Jesus talking to? We’ll
find out in a moment. But you can tell by the words,
there is almost a weariness There is almost an intolerance, as
I said a moment ago, a disappointment in his reproach. This is one
of the most, to me, shocking responses by Christ in all of
the Gospels. You have a response that just
seems uncharacteristic of Christ. I thought that this is what he
came for. When he says that they are unbelieving,
he doesn’t mean We know that others have avowed their faith. We just heard Peter’s profession
of faith. It’s not unbelieving to the core. It’s that lack of abiding faith,
living and active faith. They had little faith, he’ll
say at the end. But this prevalence of this perverse
unbelief made it difficult for Christ made it difficult for
him to live amid this generation, to bear with them, to put up
with them. Jesus had often throughout the Gospels shown disappointment
in people’s littleness of faith. Matthew 16, 4 speaks of an evil
and adulterous generation which seeks for a sign and a sign will
not be given it. They had no faith. They wanted
Jesus to work some magic, Mark 3, 5, after looking around at
them with anger. I love young Christians when
they try to wag their finger and tell you we should never
be angry, we should be angry. Bible tells us to be angry, be
angry, do not sin. We can be angry without sinning
in our anger. And Jesus Christ was a perfect
example of it. He looked around at them with
anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. He said to the man,
stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand
was restored. He saw such little faith. And he wonders aloud,
how long should I bear with you? How long should I put up with
you? But he did bear with them. He did bear with this generation.
And on this particular occasion, he put up with them. In the midst
of all the disheartening, the almost intolerable grief and
unbelief, he recognized and blessed a faith even though it was weak. I want to look this morning at
four varieties of crooked faith. Four kinds of faith that fall
short of the kind of faith that Christ was longing for, for kinds
of faith that are so crooked that our modern word is appropriate,
perverted, warped. First of all, the first variety of crooked
faith that I want to look at is the faithlessness of the crowd.
The faithlessness of the crowd. This is what I would call faith
on probation. Faith on probation. And we’ve
seen them before. They almost are constantly attending
Christ. They follow Him around wherever
they go. And we saw them in John 6 that
we just read this morning. They’re following Christ wherever
He goes and all they want is a miracle. All they want is a
show. They want proof. Their faith
is on probation. They’re waiting. They’re waiting
for God to prove Himself, to show Himself worthy. Look at
verse 14. When they, that is Jesus and
the three apostles, came back to the disciples, they saw a
large crowd around them. There were in the center of this
grand gathering of people, There were the scribes bickering. There were the nine other apostles.
They were probably somewhat on their heels. No doubt, if if
the scribes were arguing, they had to have somebody to argue
with. And so the apostles may have been trying to hold their
own. But in the midst of this crowd is almost obscured, there’s
a little boy. There’s a little boy. perhaps
even in a father’s arms. And there’s this crowd, this
insensitive, unfeeling, curious, selfish crowd. We’ve talked about
them before. And all of a sudden, they see
Jesus. It says immediately, one of the
characteristic words of Mark’s Gospel, you almost begin to look
over it, that immediately when the crowd saw Jesus, they were
amazed. They were amazed. This word,
we can’t even almost say it strongly enough. They were amazed to the
point of terror. Perhaps they were beginning to
side with the scribes and criticizing the apostles for their inability
to heal this man or this man’s child. And suddenly there’s Christ
and they are terrified, they’re awestruck. Some have suggested
that perhaps they were awestruck because Jesus’ face was still
shining. They take this from Exodus 34,
when Moses came down off the mountain. Remember? When Aaron
and all the sons of Israel, Exodus 34, 30, saw Moses, behold, the
skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him.
I don’t believe that’s the case. I don’t believe that’s the case
with Christ. Remember, Christ had admonished the other apostles
not to say a word. So why would Jesus come down
with his face shining? and beg the question. I don’t
believe that’s the case at all. I believe they were shocked.
I believe that they were horrified because I believe that they were
beginning to side with the scribes. At the very minimum, they were
enjoying the argument. For some of you who had the misfortune
of being locked in the confines of the public school system when
there were those fights Remember in the public school, when there’s
the fight, what’s the first thing that happens? A crowd gathers.
Curiosity. Who’s going to win? And this
selfish, heartless, gutless crowd gathers around this scene. They
don’t care about the little boy. All they care about is a show. The crowd was awestruck, amazed,
shocked when they saw Christ. Look down at verse 25 in that
same passage. Jesus is talking with this Father. Talking about this Son. And Jesus
happens to notice that a crowd was again beginning to gather.
Just a curious crowd. Just a crowd that wants to see
a show. Verse 25 says, when Jesus saw
that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit.
I believe that Jesus didn’t wait for the crowd to gather. He saw
that it was gathering and before all of them were even there.
Jesus didn’t play to the crowd. He didn’t pander to their curiosity.
He moved quickly to heal this boy. One Puritan saw that the crowd
was culpable. Not all commentators noticed
the crowd. Not all commentators pointed
out that the crowd was culpable, but one did. He said this, there
is there the general crowd. And people, this is where I would
say most of our city, most of our nation is at the very best. They can be called the curious
onlookers. We’ve talked about them repeatedly
in this Gospel. They’re curious about novelty.
And that’s where I would say most of even the churches. They
want the latest rage, not Christ. He goes on and says they are
neither this way nor that. They’re fence riders. That’s
what this crowd was. Their faith was on probation.
They were sitting and watching and waiting for one more miracle
as if Like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back one
day when they had enough evidence, then they would believe. Not
the case. He says, they’re neither this
way nor that. They will say that they see fair. Come, clear the ring out. If Jesus Christ be not an imposter,
if He be God, certainly He can heal this poor man. Now, here
is the test in the ordeal. If that man be not healed, we,
says the crowd, will not believe. But if he be healed, then we
will believe. Oh, dear friends, he goes on,
how often we have thought of those in very hard cases in this
way. There are hundreds of undecided
people looking on and saying, oh, if so-and-so were converted,
then I should say there was something in it. People, are we in that
crowd? Are you in that crowd? Are you
waiting for God to prove Himself? These are usually the people
that look down their nose at God’s sovereignty. They stand
on what they deem to be the dark side of God’s providence. God
hasn’t played fair with them. God hasn’t given them what they
think they deserve. And they’re angry. They’re bitter
at God. And until God makes it right,
they won’t sign up. They withhold their faith. Their
faith is there, they think, but it’s on probation. And they won’t
go all the way. Jesus’ words of verse 19 apply
to the crowd. They apply to the crowd. Oh,
unbelieving generation, how long will I put up with you? This
crowd with this purient interest cares little for a little boy,
only to see some kind of a show. Some kind of afternoon entertainment. But they’re not the only ones
to whom the words apply. I said there were four varieties
of crooked faith. Not only the faithlessness of
the crowd, but the faithlessness of the scribes. How faithless
were these men? I call this faith in cynicism. That’s where their faith was.
Their faith was in their own mind, thinking that their mind
had the ability to reason and legalize their way through anything.
Look at verse 14 again. When they, that is Jesus and
the apostles, came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd
and some scribes arguing. They almost didn’t need to even
point out that they were arguing. This was kind of the scribes’
role. Have you ever met anybody like this? I met a man recently. I talk with him from time to
time. And it doesn’t matter what the subject is. It doesn’t matter
what your opinion is. I’m convinced he’s like one of
these too many radio hosts that no matter what the topic is,
one will take one side and the other will take the other. And
they’ll sit and yammer on about it for three hours. No matter
what I say, he takes some kind of a contentious angle. That
was the nature of the scribes. That’s who they were. And Jesus says, what are you discussing
with them? What profit can there be in arguing
with them? And I would just add this is
write it in pencil, it’s free. We do too much arguing, far too
much arguing. We don’t need to prove that there’s
a God. We don’t need to prove that Scripture is true. We don’t
need to prove that Christ died on the cross. We can take those
things for granted. We believe them to be true. Proclaim
them. We don’t need to argue about any of it. The question, it’s interesting,
it’s addressed to the crowd. What are you discussing with
them? Perhaps if you want to narrow it down, he’s addressing
it to the nine apostles. What are you guys doing arguing
with them? But they don’t answer. Crowd
didn’t answer. Scribes didn’t answer. You would
think that they really had an airtight case. They would have
spoken up. We’ll tell you what we’re arguing about. Guess what
they did? The apostles didn’t answer. Shamed
by what they had been unable to do. They didn’t answer. Who were these scribes? Who were
these scribes? The scribes were those men, Jewish
scholars who studied and taught and interpreted and proclaimed
and transmitted the Mosaic law in all of its fullness and beyond. They went far beyond. This is
how one described what the scribes did, where the written law made
no direct provision Do you hear the error in that statement that
he’s describing? He’s not advocating their position. He’s describing what it was.
Where the written law made no direct provision. In other words, where the law
was lacking, where God had dropped the ball, the scribes stepped
in. Where God failed to clarify for
us people, The scribes were there as ready servants to help. He goes on and says, where the
written law made no direct provision, they created compensation. They filled in the gaps by establishing
a precedent or by inference. statement that I’ve always tried
to live by. Somebody told me it’s in Calvin’s
writings. I’ve never found it, but it’s a truism. Where the
Bible speaks, we speak. Where the Bible is silent, we
too are silent. Good way to live. The scribes
didn’t live that way. And immediately they begin their
ministry to Christ by challenging him. Challenging him in a multitude
of ways. First of all, Matthew 12 says
they said that we want to see a sign. Prove yourself just like
the crowd. Mark 2.6 says that the scribes
began reasoning in their hearts, criticizing Christ silently.
Then verbally, Mark 2.16, criticizing him for eating with sinners.
Luke 5.30. Mark 7.5 says that they criticized
Christ because His disciples did not walk according to tradition. All of their little filled in
blanks and legalistic statements. They criticized Christ for healing
on the Sabbath, and then they begin their verbal attack. The
verbal attack in Matthew 9.3 says that they accused Him of
blasphemy. In Mark 3.22, they said that
he was possessed by Beelzebul, a demon. And then they begin their plan.
Jesus predicted their plan of putting him on the cross. Jesus
had already told the apostles that this was going to take place
on two occasions. They no doubt were rattled by
it. The scribes were going to have an active role in putting
Christ to death. Shocking. And they begin plotting. Matthew
11.18 says they began seeking how to destroy Him. Matthew 14.1,
seeking how to seize Him by stealth. They were afraid of the crowd.
They were hypocrites. They wouldn’t even own their
desire to put Christ to death. Luke 19.47, they were trying
to destroy Him. Luke 20.19, trying to lay hands
on Him. And this was not for good purpose.
Luke 22, 22 to seeking how they might put him to death. That
that’s the resume of the scribes. That’s who they were to Christ.
No wonder Christ in that expose in Matthew 23 calls them hypocrites. Seven times scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites. That’s what they were. They didn’t
even live by their own manmade laws. They couldn’t and they
wouldn’t. That’s what we’re left with in
these scribes. What were they doing on this
scene? There’s no doubt. The text has
it that the apostles were unable to heal the boy. And that no
doubt frames a good idea. We don’t know because Scripture
doesn’t tell us, but it sure gives us a good idea of what
the scribes were up to. They were mocking the nine apostles. That’s what I believe. Because
they’d been unable to heal this small boy. Because Jesus wasn’t
there, they were on the attack. And it was venomous. One recorded
it this way. He said, it’s not surprising
that these scribes were filled with chortling, malicious glee
because of the inability of the nine to cure the epileptic boy.
They were rubbing it in. The nine were having a difficult
time in defending themselves before all these people. These are the scribes. They’re
cynics, professional cynics. And people, the question for
us is, how many of us would fall into that category? If our faith
isn’t on probation, how many of us are even yet critical of
God? Cynical, doubtful of God’s ways,
doubtful of God’s blessings, doubtful of God’s character and
goodness and mercy. These cynics looked at the sincere
but misguided effort of the apostles and they found cause to criticize.
Even at the expense of the boy, their concern isn’t for this
little child. Their concern is for their own
agenda. So the words of verse 19 apply
to the scribes. Oh, unbelieving generation. How
long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with
you? But there’s a third. There’s
a third group. Not only the faithlessness of
the crowd and the faithlessness of the scribes, but the faithlessness
of the Father. This is what I would call faith
in a box. Faith in a box. He had some faith
and he believed that Jesus could do some things. But it was neatly packaged, folded
over and taped shut and stored on a shelf. It was faith in a
box. Look at verse 17. Jesus had asked the question,
what are you discussing with them? And he asked it generally
of the crowd, but nobody, the crowd itself didn’t answer. The
scribes didn’t answer. Not even the apostles answered. Only this man, this needy, desperate
man. Said verse 17, one of the crowd
answered him. Luke 9.38 adds an important detail
here. It was a man from the crowd that
shouted, Teacher, I beg you, look at my son. The Greek word
implies a crying out with a very loud voice. By our standards,
we might even say that He obnoxiously blurted out. He screamed at Jesus
is literally the word. It’s the same word that’s used
of our Lord’s crying out on the cross. Same word that’s used
of the multitude that was trying out to Pilate for Jesus to die. This was a desperate man. This
was a needy man. Matthew says that when they came
to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus. This man didn’t just cry
out, but he came up to Jesus and fell on his knees before
Him. This was an act of worship. This is an act of absolute desperation
and dependence upon God. Mark continues and says, Teacher,
I brought you my son. Luke adds, it’s my only son. Over and over in Luke’s gospel,
he has brought us those with their only son, the widow of
Nain, the daughter of Jairus. Those were desperate situations,
no doubt. I brought you my son and he’s
possessed with a spirit, no doubt from the very start, regardless
of what anybody else says to you about the nature of this
disease, the core is demon possession. There were those that went on
to describe in all kinds of terms what would happen if the guy
had this and such disease. We don’t know what he had. We
do know what he did have. A demon. And it makes him mute,
the father says. Dumb, unable to speak, unable
to articulate with his tongue what he wanted to say. It doesn’t
mean that he couldn’t make noise because it clearly says that
he did. Verse 18 goes on to describe it as whenever it seizes him,
it slams into the ground, he foams at the mouth, he grinds
his teeth, he stiffens out. That’s a particular graphic word,
stiffens out. The word applied to corn plants
when it didn’t get enough water. They would literally flop over
and they’re dead and done. Mark 4.6 describes it this way. After the sun had risen, it was
scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. Remember
the parable of the soils? If it had no root, it withered
away. And that’s literally what happened to this child. The father
pleading with Christ, laying out all this terrible detail,
this dreadful malady that the child had. One described that little word
as this. It says he becomes like a dry
stick, bloodless and motionless. He literally is just laid out.
And people, I don’t care what you say, this is much worse than
any epilepsy. Much worse. In fact, Matthew’s
Gospel adds it this way. Lord, have mercy on us, for he
is a lunatic. Now, in our day and age, we use
that word on the driver in front of us. That’s not what Matthew
had in mind in recording it. He ties it to this strange idea
that people had of the full moon. That’s originally what the word
meant, lunar. He’s a lunatic and he’s very
ill. He often falls into the fire and often into the water. And what was Jesus’ response?
Was it one of compassion? Was it one, why bring him to
me and let me get him healed? No, this is the context in which
we find verse 19, the shocking verse. He answered and said to
them, he answered them and said, Oh, unbelieving generation, how
long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with
you? Bring him to me. They brought the boy to him.
When he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him into convulsion,
falling on the ground. He began rolling around, foaming
at the mouth. He asked his father, how long
has this been happening to him? He said, from a childhood. This
is a long standing, difficult disease, no doubt, brought on
by this demon possession. It’s often thrown him both into
the fire and the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, And there’s the faith in the
box. And it’s characterized like so often our own faith is, if. Lord, if you’re able. Lord, if
you’re willing. Lord, if. That little expression points
out that the man’s faith was very weak. Perhaps at the beginning
it had been strong. He was strong enough to come
out of his house with this child who no doubt was a sight to behold. No doubt an embarrassment in
a sense to him. He had the faith to come out.
He had the faith to approach the apostles. Maybe he went looking
for Christ and he took them as second best. He had the faith
to ask Him. But in their inability to heal
him, his faith has begun to fade, hasn’t it? Lord, almost to hopelessness, if You
can do anything, take pity on us. That little word, us, that plural
shows how entirely, this is a loving father. I’m not taking anything
away from him. He loved his own son enough to try something desperate,
and he ties in with his own son. How much his entire life was
so totally knotted up with his child. He was confident when he left
home, but now he wonders. The question is, can he heal
my boy? He didn’t doubt his willingness.
Remember, the leper doubted Christ’s willingness. If you are willing,
I know what you can do. If you are willing, heal me.
This was the opposite. And this is a sad opposite. He
knew Christ was willing. He doubted his ability. But he
asks for help. And the word is a graphic one.
It’s meaningful. It’s deep. The original word
basically consists of two smaller words glued together as one.
One word meant to cry and the other one to run. Any context where you find this word,
it’s used of this urgent request of our Lord or of any helper
who happens to be around so that they can rush toward the person
in need and help him. Come quickly and help. Hurry,
Christ. But Jesus seizes the man’s words. And rather than rushing to his
aid, first he deals with his heart. Verse 23, Jesus said to
him, if you can, I don’t doubt that those three little words
echoed in that man’s ears the rest of his life. If you can. And you know what, people? They
should echo in ours. Because we put our faith in a box every
day. We put it in a box, tape it up,
and put it on the shelf. Every single day, that’s where
our faith lives. Faith in a box. If you can. Christ quotes the man and issues an expression
of surprise at the man’s doubt. And he points out that it doesn’t
depend on his ability. It depends on the man’s faith. In a sense, it’s not up to me,
Jesus says. It’s up to you. Do you believe? Immediately, the boy’s father
cried out and said, I do believe. He had faith. It was small. It
was puny. It was weak. It was faith in
a box. But it was faith. I do believe. Help my unbelief. And that has been the prayer
for generations, hasn’t it? Hasn’t that often been your prayer?
Lord, I know I believe. Help my unbelief. And that should
be our prayer. There isn’t a person in the room
with a perfect faith, a perfect view of God, perfect faith in
His ability. When Jesus saw that the crowd
was rapidly gathering to rebuke the unclean spirit, saying to
it, you deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him
and do not enter again. And so there’s no doubt that
the words of verse 19 apply to the pleading Father. They apply
to the pleading Father. Oh, unbelieving generation, how
long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with
you? But there’s a fourth group. As
we close this morning, there’s a fourth variety of crooked faith,
not only the faithlessness of the crowd and the faithlessness
of the scribes and the faithlessness of the Father, but the faithlessness
of the apostles. And this is what I would call
faith in collapse. Verse 14 says, when they came
back to the disciples, Jesus, the three apostles, they saw
a large crowd gathering around them. No doubt, the apostles
themselves, the nine that were left behind. And some scribes
were arguing with them, which meant that the apostles were
participating in that argument, maybe reluctantly, but there
they were trying to go toe to toe with these fools. Skipping down to verse 17. 17
says, one of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought you my
son, possessed with the Spirit, which makes him mute. Whenever
it seizes him, it slams him to the ground. He foams at the mouth,
grinds his teeth, stiffens out. I told your disciples to cast
it out and they could not do it. It’s interesting. He didn’t
ask. Even here he admits that he didn’t
ask. He told them. And he basically tells them the
same thing that Christ told them. Cast out demons. These people, these apostles,
these men of God, most of them had healed people during their
mission. Remember, they came back all enthused and Jesus didn’t
even zero in on what the experiences were. Jesus knew. He had commanded
them. He had equipped them. He had
commissioned them out. He didn’t expect anything different. But suddenly, they meet a foe
that they can’t handle. And no doubt, no doubt, when
they walked into that house in verse 28, their tails proverbially
were between their legs. Their heads were hanging. They
knew that they were going to get it. They knew that those
words of verse 19 applied to them. They may even thought that
they applied exclusively to them. His disciples began questioning
Him privately, no doubt. Can you imagine that they would
have asked this question in public? Lord, what did we do wrong? Next
time, what could we do better? Forget it. They’re just like
us. They want to try and save as
much face as they can, and so they go in private. What do we
do? Why couldn’t we drive it out?
The answer that Mark records, I think is full. I think it’s
all there. He says, this kind cannot come
out by anything but prayer. In essence, what he says, you
didn’t pray. And if you didn’t pray, you didn’t pray right.
You didn’t pray fervently. You didn’t pray long. You didn’t
pray persistently. And we know that because Matthew
adds in the details in verse 20. Matthew 17, 20 gives Matthew’s
recorded answer. Listen to this. Why couldn’t
we drive it out? Because of the littleness of
your faith. You let go. That’s essentially
what Jesus says. Your faith shrank. Your faith
collapsed. You quit believing. And you quit
praying. For truly, I say to you, that
if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say
to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move. They
wanted to know what was the cause of their failure. One pastor
described it this way. It was a lack of faith. Faith
is the key to success in Christian warfare. Unbelief is the sure
road to defeat. Once, let our faith languish
and decay, and all our graces will languish with it. Courage,
patience, long-suffering, and hope will soon wither and dwindle
away. Faith is the root on which they
all detend. People, if none of the other
ones touched you, if your faith is such that you can honestly
say it’s not on probation, if your faith is such that you can
say that it’s not a cynical faith, if your faith is such that you
can say it’s out of the box, this one gets us. This one gets
all of us. Faith in collapse. The poverty
of faith, as Scripture so often pointed it out. Maybe these apostles,
these disciples have been trying to cast out devils and demons
in their own power. Maybe they began to think it
was like some kind of a magic trick. And as soon as they saw
that it was gone, they panicked. That’s what they did. They panicked. And rather than persevering in
prayer, they just shrank. One pastor described it this
way. Jesus pointed to them the true
source of power to meet such a condition. They had failed
to realize that there was no hope to dislodge this demon except
through a believing appeal to the power of God. They had access
to the power. They had failed to maintain their
continued sense of dependence upon God’s power through continued
communion with Him. And the sad truth is how much
is that true of us? We believe that there’s a place
for this church. We believe that there’s something
that God has called us to do in this world. We believe that
we have a certain and particular gift. But we get frustrated. And we
leave off. Our faith begins to collapse.
And we too have needed the same exhortation. If we have faith
yet no bigger than a little tiny mustard seed, we can move mountains. So how puny, how shrunken, how
atrophied have the apostles’ faith become? Jesus goes on to say, nothing,
nothing will be impossible to him who believes. And Jesus leaves
us to figure out all the details. He’s not saying that we can go
work magic. And so there’s no doubt that
Jesus’ words of verse 19 apply to the apostles. These are those whose faith was
in a collapse throughout this passage We have seen various
kinds of faith, but in the final analysis, it isn’t just to any
one particular individual. And that’s why Jesus chose the
words, oh, faithless and perverted generation. The entire lot of
you, Jesus says. Not only this crowd with the
sick interest, not only the scribes with their cynicism, Not only
this man with the faith in the box, but the apostles as well. People, there are countless lessons
there for each of us. Let’s examine our hearts before
our God. The same one that inspired this
passage. Let’s find out what kind of faith
is ours. Let’s pray. Our gracious God, how patient
and how merciful You are. O Lord, we thank You for Christ’s
words and we know that He ultimately, regardless of the disdain and
disappointment in His voice in that instant, ultimately, He would go to the cross for
these very people and for us, who would have responded exactly
the same way Either in the crowd, or as the Father, or as these
apostles, or even as these scribes. Father, we would have done the
same thing because we do it today. Lord God, examine our hearts.
Change us. Indeed, we believe. Help our unbelief. Grant us Your
grace, Father, for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.