Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a glorious God. And everything you created, you created to reflect your glory. And sometimes, Lord, when we look at the beauty of creation, a stunning sunrise or sunset, when we look into the ocean or when we look at the mountains, we're mesmerized by how beautiful it is. And all of that is just a mere reflection of your glory. You created us, male and female, in your image to image forth your glory. And Lord, we chose not to. In our rebellion recalcitrants, we chose to live for our own glory, our own name. And we do live in a city where many devote themselves to the pursuit of their own personal glory, be it through education or through athletics or through career in many other ways. And Lord, once we attain that personal glory, we know it's doesn't satisfy. There's only one glory that does. And then that's the glory of the Son of God.
We thank you Jesus that you revealed your glory, but you also veiled it in your incarnation. You took on flesh. The eternal son of God took on flesh to represent us on the cross to pay an eternal penalty that we deserve for falling short of the glory of God with our sin. And then Lord, because of your death, burial, and resurrection, you promise that whoever believes in you repent of sin, you wipe out that record of condemnation. You replace it with imputed righteousness. And then you call us to live in a manner worthy of the glory of the name you've given us, the name of Christ. We are Christians, we are followers of Christ.
And Lord Jesus, today I pray that you empower us to live whatever path you've called us to to bring the most glory to your name. Because we know that in the path of self-denial and living for your glory, that's when we begin to experience what our souls long for most, which is your glory. Bless our time, the holy scriptures, we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come. The gospel Mark, the secret of God's kingdom. Today, Jesus Christ reveals one of the greatest secrets, which is he is the glorious God. The title of the sermon is a Foretaste of Glory. Os Guinness once said, "We have too much to live with and too little to live for. Everything is permitted and nothing is important."
In many ways, life is difficult. And to get through the difficulties of life, you need a why. Why am I going through what I'm going through? Or why should I get up in the morning? What gets you up in the morning? What do you live for? What gives you energy to keep striving, keep working, keep grinding. In chapter 8 of the previous chapter, Jesus Christ said, "Whoever would follow me, take up your cross and follow me daily. Deny self that the way to life is self-denial, death of your own selfish ambitions." And the disciples have to decide, is it worth it? Deny self, is it worth it? "Why? Why should I deny myself?" Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus Christ? Why? "Follow me." Why Jesus? Take up the good fight. Fight the good fight of faith. Why? Repent of sin and mortify sin. Why?
Well, the answer is that you get more of God, you get more of God's presence, more of His power. You get more of Jesus Christ, you get more of God's glory the more you live to glorify Him. Jesus Christ said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." In some sense, we have the ability to see God with the eyes of faith, the eyes of our soul, even today what gets in the way impurities of heart. The author of Hebrew says, "Strive for holiness without which no one will see God."
Today we are Mark chapter 9, verses 1-29. Would you look at the text with me? "And he said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.' And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. And his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them, Elijah and Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it's good that we are here. Let us make three tents and one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, for he did not know what to say for they were terrified.' A cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved son. Listen to Him.' And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only."
"And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead. So they kept a matter to themselves questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. And they asked him, 'Why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come?' And he said to them, 'Elijah does come first to restore all things and how is it written of the son of man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt. But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased as it is written'."
"And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd when they saw Him were greatly amazed and ran up and greeted him. And he asked them, 'What are you arguing about with them?' And someone from the crowd answered him, '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 and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able.' And he answered them, 'Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me'."
"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. And Jesus asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood. It has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' And Jesus said to him, 'If you can, all things are possible for one who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe. Help my unbelief.' And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running 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'."
"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.' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer'." This is the reading of God's holy narrative and fallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, a foretaste of heaven. Second, Jesus suffered hell to give you heaven. And third, a foretaste of hell.
First is a foretaste of heaven. Why did I use the term foretaste? My wife was making a cake this week and it looked delicious. I was very tempted to come up, stick my finger right in and taste it, a foretaste of the glory of the cake. Here we have a foretaste of the glory of heaven. What's the greatest thing about heaven? It's not just that we get to enjoy existence for all of eternity. No, the greatest thing about heaven is God. It's the glory of God, proximity to God. And in Mark 9:1, Jesus promises prophesies to the disciples. Some of you are going to see that glory, the kingdom of God come in power. He says in verse 1, "Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."
So He, Jesus, is going to show Peter, James and John, the big three disciples, his inner circle. He's going to show them what the greatest thing about the kingdom of God is. It's the glory of Jesus Christ as He reveals His glory. In verse 2, "After six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves and He was transfigured before them."
After six days, time indications are rare in Mark. Mark usually, when he talks about time, says something like, "In those days" or "That day" or "Several days later," or his favorite word "immediately," that's his favorite word. But here he says six days. Very specific. Most likely it is symbolic. Six days. If you remember, God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. The seventh day, the Sabbath day was set apart as a sanctuary in time, a day that was holy. And Jesus Christ chooses to reveal His glory to His closest disciples on the Sabbath day.
The symbolism is also seen if you read in Exodus 24 where Moses goes up on the mountain. For six days, he waited and then on the seventh day, that's when the Lord revealed himself to Moses and says He was transfigured before Him. He was transformed. Transformed from what? From his earthly body. Jesus is the glorious son of God, eternal. He took on flesh in his incarnation, which veiled his glory. That was part of the humbling experience. He humbled Himself by taking on flesh. And here he reveals who he truly is.
Verse 3, "And his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them." His clothes even became radiant, a dazzling, extremely white. When Moses went up in the mountain and he came down, His face shone. He reflected the glory of God. Well, here this is different. Jesus is not reflecting glory. No, it's his own glory. It's emanating from within Him. It's to symbolize what? That this man is God. He is the son of man and He is the son of God. It was the only way. We have transgressed a holy law of an eternal God and the punishment for transgressing the eternal law of an eternal God is eternal punishment. It's eternal damnation in hell. Therefore, if anyone is going to save us, that person has to be holy and eternal and he has to be a person. Only Jesus Christ could do it.
Here, Jesus is reassuming his true form. This is who He's always been. It's who He always will be. This is his prehuman glory and it's His eternal glory. This is partially why Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Not just light morally speaking, not just that He speaks the truth. He's literally the light of the world. He is Yahweh incarnate. Despite the fact that he was human, he had to be to represent us, He grew tired, He walked, He talked, He got sick. He knew some things, others he had to learn through study and observation. He laughed, He wept. He experienced pain and exasperation, melancholy. He bled and he died, but he was God.
He's the same God that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, it says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him, stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. One called to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory'."
And who was this Lord that is sitting on a throne? And John 12:41, Jesus said that Isaiah was speaking of Him. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of Him. Therefore, as you meditate on the glory of God and you say, "Imagine the humility," I was thinking about Superman. The humility that Superman had and walking around looking like a normal guy and he had the glasses and everything, but he's superman. Anytime he can use his power. Jesus are like that to the end, that's times' infinity. Jesus Christ veiled his glory. In order to stoop down, He took on flesh in order to represent us.
John 1:14, "The Lord became flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth and dwelt among us." In the Greek gets tabernacle with us. He pitched his tent with us. It's as if he came down and hid His glory. But hear the disciples are given a fresh glimpse of the unsurpassable glory, of unimaginable majesty, of the dignity and transcendence and otherness of Jesus. When he walked with them on a daily basis, there was this hiddenness.
On the one hand, He's saying He's the son of God. On the other hand, they completely forget. They're oblivious sometimes. He teaches and then all of a sudden it says they're hardened in their heart. They don't understand. He teaches, they don't understand. And part of it was they're looking at a human being. And he's right with them. He looks just like them. And in a sense, familiarity does breed contempt, but Jesus here is showing them disciples. "It is worth it to die for me. It is worth it to sacrifice anything and everything for me. I'm here with you on your level, which does not mean we are equals. Let me show you how much other than you I am." And he reveals his glory to them.
And as He's transfigured, verse 4, there appear to them Elijah with Moses and they were talking with Jesus. Now at this point, Moses had been dead over 1,400 years. He died in a secluded place and he was buried by the very hand of God. Elijah had been gone for about 900 years. He didn't die. God took Him while he was still alive. And both Moses and Elijah are mentioned in Malachi 4, which is a prophecy about the one who would come to prepare the way for the Messiah. In Malachi 4:4, it says, "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest thy come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."
God promised that through the preparation, the preparing work of the one who will come in the spirit of Elijah and that's John the Baptist. We'll get to that in the second point. Why Moses and Elijah? Because both of them saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai. And also Moses himself prophesied that there will come a day when God will send a prophet, "Just like me," in Deuteronomy 18:15, "the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to Him you shall listen."
Moses was the great prophet because he was given the law of God, the decalogue, the 10 commandments, which is God's pattern. This is how humanity is to live. And Moses taught the people of Israel. This is how you glorify God in your life by living according to the commandments out of hearts of love toward God and neighbor. And then Elijah, what was his ministry? He went to very stubborn people of God, covenant people of God who were not living according to the commandments and he called them back to worshiping God, not Baal, back to following the commandments of God, not the desires of the heart.
And what did Jesus Christ come to do? Well, he didn't come to abolish the law. Matthew 5:17, "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." And when he says fulfill them, that means live according to them. Jesus did not abrogate the law. He actually lived according to the law in order to represent us on the cross as he bore the wrath of God for our lawbreaking. And I wonder what they were talking about, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. I think they were talking about the death of Jesus Christ. We get that from Luke chapter 9, the parallel passage. "Behold two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory. And the two men who stood with him."
Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus in his glorified state about his departure. What's the word departure mean? It means his death. He, the glorious son of God, is going to die. And Moses and Elijah, they were dumbfounded by this. "How is the son of the eternal son of God, how is he going to die? Why would he die?" And God's response is "Because Moses, you weren't capable of changing people's hearts to obey the commandments from within. You could tell them what to do. You could tell them demands of God. You couldn't change their hearts to do it out of hearts of love. And Elijah, you could yell at the people of God and try to muster their zeal for the holiness of God, but even that was temporary. And Elijah, you yourself, what did you do? You prophesied that there will be a new covenant. And in the new covenant God will remove hearts of stone, replace them with hearts of flesh and write his law on those new hearts."
That's what they were talking about Christ departure. And it's the word exodus, the same word exodus that's used about Moses is the word for departure here. Moses, in the same way that you led millions of people out of slavery, out of captivity, Jesus is going to lead the elect out of the captivity of the nets of Satan and sin. In verse 5, Peter said to Jesus... This is a very, very important moment. Peter's terrified and when he's terrified, he just did not speak. But he decides to speak as the representative and he says, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here." He doesn't know what to say. Verse 6 says that he was terrified. He had no idea. But he knows what he feels.
Someone said, most people aren't going to remember what you said, but they're going to remember how you made them feel. At this moment, he feels something he's never felt. He feels a satisfaction, a satiation of the soul. He realized this is the whole point. This is the whole purpose of life. It's to bask in the glory of God. And Jesus, why would we leave? I don't want to go back to that. Let's stay here. And he has an idea. "Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah." Why the tents idea? Maybe he thought, "You know what? Moses likes tents. He lived in tents. The tabernacle was a tent. The people of God knew about the festival of booths to remember the fact that they lived in tents. I think he just wanted to stay up here." And I think his ploy was, because it was his idea with the tents, "James, you get to bunk with Moses. And John, you get to bunk with Elijah. You guys are same. And Jesus, come here. Come here. Jesus. I am going to bask in the glory of God."
He got a foretaste of heaven and he didn't want to leave. In verse 6, "For he did not know what to say for they were terrified." And verse 7, "And a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of that cloud, 'This is my beloved son. Listen to him'." So we've got the glory of Jesus Christ emanating from within him. And then we get a cloud which also is a representative of the glory of God. The cloud in the Old Testament was a sign of the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God. That cloud is what led the people during the day and a pillar of fire during the night out of Egypt.
Imagine what this all looked like from the ground, the mountain capped with divine incandescent and it is overshadowing them a gesture of protection. And then you hear the voice of the Father, God the Father. He says, "This is my beloved son. Listen to him." And listen to Him in allusion to Deuteronomy 18 where Moses said, "Listen to the prophet." And this is how God speaks to us. God, very rarely does he speak audibly and most likely it's because he's already spoken the most important truths to us through his son Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1 says, "Long ago, at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by His son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs."
Do you want to hear from God? Well, God has spoken through His son. Go to the Son, ask the son to reveal himself to you, to reveal his glorious nature to you. King Herod, he heard about the work of Jesus and he said, "Who's that?" I think it might be Elijah come back from the dead after Herod executed him. The disciples, Jesus asked, "What do the people say that I am?" And he said, "Some think that you're a great prophet. Others think that you are Elijah." And here God the father's gives us the ultimate definition, the ultimate identity of Jesus. "This is my son, my beloved son. This is my chosen one."
The Father loves the son so much that the very first time he speaks in the presence of the glory of His son, the first thing he wants to say is how much he loves him. This is my beloved son. Listen to Him." Moses and Elijah, they were the king's servants, God's servants. "This is God's son." So obviously, He's the one worth living for. This is the greatest purpose that there is. He's worth denying yourself for. He's better than self. There's no one like Him, no one greater, no one equal, no one even close. And He's the only one who can satisfy your soul. We know we long for that satisfaction. We know you can't just live for self. Anyone that's done that for any period of time, you know it doesn't satisfy, living for yourself, living for your own appetites, living for your own desires. We all know we need a greater purpose than self. But the greatest purpose, the absolute greatest purpose is Jesus Christ. Everything points to Him.
And here the father overshadows them. And in response maybe to Peter's desire to stay up in the mountain and just forget about all the work below, the Father says, Listen to him." And what does Jesus say? He says, "It's time for us to go down the mountain." After he gives him a foretaste of the indescribable glory, they descend down to earth to deal with the hell below. And point 2 is that Jesus suffered hell to give you heaven. In verse 9, "As they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead."
We're having a conversation community group about why Jesus just keeps telling them, "Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone." He does a miracle and he's like, "Don't tell anyone." I think it's more than just reverse psychology. In the beginning he told him don't tell anyone because he knew as soon as they proclaim the full truth, that both Rome and the Sanhedrin will attempt to kill Jesus and do it before the appointed time. But this is the last of the nine commands in the Gospel of Mark for silence. After this moment, after the transfiguration, it's as if Jesus is descending from the mountain and say, "Yes, now is the time, gloves are off, I'm going to fulfill the mission."
In verse 10, "So they kept the matter to themselves questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." Why do they have questions about Jesus rising from the dead? Well, because they didn't really understand why Jesus had to die. "Jesus, why would you have to? You're the Messiah. You're here to establish your physical kingdom. We want to be in your court of that kingdom. We want thrones next to you. What do you mean die? What do you mean rise from the dead? Let's not talk about rise from the dead because we don't want you to die." But Jesus knew that this was the only way for salvation to be procured because scripture teaches that the penalty for sin is death. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all disobeyed. The penalty is death. So if someone is going to save us from the execution that we deserve, well that person has to die in our stead. And that's what Jesus had to do. The eternal son of God had to pay the eternal penalty on the cross on our behalf.
The disciples didn't want to ask about the resurrection because that wasn't even a category for them so they start asking about Elijah. And why Elijah? Because the two issues are related. If Jesus is to die and rise and the scriptures taught that Elijah must come, or one in the spirit of Elijah must come before the Messiah, their question is, "Well, if you're going to die, did Elijah already come?" And verse 11, "They asked him, 'Why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come?'." They expected the Elijah to come and to restore all things to fix everything. The same way that they thought that the Messiah was going to fix everything physically with the physical kingdom, they thought Elijah was going to prepare the way for the Messiah in the same way.
But Jesus points out in verse 12, "Elijah does come first to restore all things. And how is it written of the son of man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?" He's saying Elijah will go before the Messiah, but you need to understand that the way of the Messiah, the ministry of the Messiah is a ministry of death. So if Elijah comes before the Messiah and the servant is not greater than the teacher, well, if the teacher dies, then the Elijah figure must die as well. So Jesus is working backwards and he's correcting their false understanding of the Messiah. The Messiah is eternal, but the Messiah must also die. And this has been prophesied. He must suffer at the hands of men. He must suffer being treated with contempt because God promised this.
In the scriptures, thousands of years before even the coming of Christ, one of the clearest prophetic passages about the Messiah suffering is Psalm 22. Psalm 22, in such an uncanny detailed way, talks about the crucifixion as if the psalmist is sitting at the foot of the cross eyewitness to everything that's happening and watching the suffering of the Messiah. And Jesus quotes the psalm on the cross, Psalm 22 verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?"
The Son does not address God the Father is Father. The Son on the cross feels such a chasm between him and the Father that he just cries out to him as God. "God, why have you forsaken me? For what purpose have you forsaken? You forsaken me because Jesus Christ took our sin upon himself." Being forsaken by God is to experience the wrath of God. So if you reject Jesus Christ, if you reject God and you say, "I just want to be neutral, I want to be neutral toward God, I don't want heaven, I don't want hell and I'll just cease to exist." That's not true. It's either heaven or it's hell. It's either God or itself. And self and pursuit of self, that's ultimately Satanic. And Jesus Christ there on the cross, what's he experiencing? He's experiencing cosmic alienation that the father has removed. The Father who loved his beloved son so much, he's removed his affection. He's removed the presence of his love and Christ suffering. That's the hell that he's experiencing on the cross.
Verse 16 of Psalm 22, "For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. They have pierced my hands and feet." Centuries before crucifixion was even invented as a method of torture and execution, Jesus Christ on the cross, that's what was happening. And this was prophesied centuries before. So obviously the son of man, the Son of God had to suffer to fulfill the prophecies and as the only means of our salvation.
Verse 13. "But I tell you that Elijah has come. And they did to him whatever they pleased as it is written of me." If the son of man is to be a suffering Messiah, then Elijah must be a suffering forerunner to prepare the way for the Lord. And this is what Jesus is saying. He's saying that John the Baptist is the Elijah figure who found his Jezebel in Herodes. And this is promised by the angel when the angel came to John the Baptist parents, Elizabeth and Zachariah, in Luke 1:14. "And you ill have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he'll be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink and he'll be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
So Jesus says that, "Elijah has come, Elijah has suffered, Elijah has died, and now it's my turn to fulfill my ministry." And as they descend from the mountain, that's the conversation they're having. The scene turns from glory of the mountaintop and to the darkness of the shadow of death. The Vatican hangs Raphael's last painting, he was commissioned before his death, to paint the transfiguration and he actually didn't finish the painting. Some of his students did. But the top of the painting is the transfiguration. It's Jesus Christ in his glory, light emanating from him. And you've got Moses and you've got Elijah, you've got the disciples, the three of them blinded by the brilliance. And then below and everything changes drastically from light to darkness. And below you have the disciples trying to fight a demon that's possessed a little boy with his father by his side.
It's an overwhelming contrast. It's as if they've experienced heaven and now they have to return to hell on earth, but the only way to heaven is to overcome hell. And that's what Jesus came to do.
So this is point 3, a foretaste of hell. In verse 14, "When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd when they saw Him were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him." They were amazed. We're not sure why. Perhaps it's because there was an after glow of the radiance as we saw with Moses, as he descends from Sinai. So they're all mesmerized by Him. In the verse 16, "He asked them, 'What are you arguing about with them to the disciples? What are you arguing with the crowds and the scribes?'." In verse 17, "And someone from the crowd answered Him, '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 and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able'."
The father here provides a detailed description of what the demon was doing to the child. The demon was trying to destroy the child through mutanus, through indulgence, through foaming at the mouth, teeth, grinding rigidity. And the father has spent enough time with the son to know it's not just physical. This isn't just medical intervention that's needed in this case. In this case, we need something more and we need a greater power than the power of the demonic. He understood he was powerless against the demon. The child is powerless so we needed a power greater than the demon.
He brought the child to Jesus. He said, "I brought him to you." But Jesus wasn't here. Jesus was on the mountain. So he turned to the disciples and he says the disciples were not able. They didn't have the strength, they didn't have the power. And in verse 19, "Jesus turns to disciples, he answered them, 'Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me'." Why couldn't the rest of the disciples, the nine that were left, why couldn't they cast out this demon? And Jesus says lack of faith, faithless generation. And you say, "Lack of faith?" We've already seen the disciples casting out demons. The disciples went on a mission trip where they cast out demons. They came back to Jesus and they were pumped about it. And Jesus says, "Rejoice not that the demons listen to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
So they've done it before, but he says, "You faithless generation, the reason why you didn't have power over the demonic was disbelief. You weren't believing." And if you ever considered exorcisms or casting out demons, to even attempt to cast out a demon is an act of faith. You know you can't do it. It's an act of faith to do it. So as they tried, they were believing, but the faith was wrongheaded. It wasn't directed in the right object of faith. Well, where was their faith directed? It wasn't directed at Christ. Christ wasn't here. They felt his absence. All of a sudden, what are they relying on? Perhaps their past experience. "We've done this before." All of a sudden they're believing in themselves or they're believing in their calling or they're believing in their anointing. But they stop believing in Jesus Christ, the lack of faith.
And this echoes other times where Jesus calls them out, rebukes them for their lack of faith, meaning he expected more of them. But because of the absence of Christ physically, they lost faith. Verse 20, "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." The demon recognizes who Jesus is immediately and musters his last attack. He's an entrenched demon, a self-confident demon. He's defeated the disciples and their attempts to oust him. He thinks he might be able to do it again before Christ. And he attacks the boy.
Verse 21. "And Jesus asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us'." Why is Jesus asking the question? He knows everything. He's asking the question to elicit information from the man for the crowd. So everyone else hears. Hears what? Hears the fact that a demon has possessed the boy from when the boy was a child. And here you got to pause and start meditating a little bit, that demons want to possess even children. Why? Because demons like Satan, their leader, they hate humans, they hate humanity. They hate anyone and everyone created in the image of God. They hate the glory of God and they hate anyone who might glorify God. And they want to destroy human beings as soon as possible. That's why he took over the boy.
And here, this needs to inform the way that we think of children, the way that we think of parenting. The parents, we need to pray over our children. Lord, protect them from the evil one, protect them from oppression, protect them from demonic possession. And we have to pray over and pray to Lord. Lord, fill my child with the power of the Spirit from youth just like John the Baptist, there is a real spiritual war happening behind the scenes for every single soul and Satan wants to get them as soon as possible.
And the Father cries out, "Have compassion on us. Help us. Have mercy on us if you can." And by saying if you can, he is questioning the ability of Jesus. He had believed in Jesus enough to bring his son to Jesus, but Jesus wasn't there and all he could see were the disciples. And the disciples, through their lack of faith, actually sow doubt in the man's heart about the ability of Jesus. Jesus catches onto that phrase in verse 23. Jesus said, "If you can?" And in the original text, we don't have punctuation. So in the Greek there's no periods and exclamation marks.
So here it could be a question mark, "If you can?" Or it could be a question mark with exclamation mark, "If you can?!" Or it could be just multiple exclamation marks like, "Bro, if you..." What's he doing? He's saying, "Look, I just said that this demon can't be cast out with a lack of faith. If this is going to happen, you have to believe. You have to believe that I can do this." And the Father gets it.
In the second part of verse 23, "All things are possible for one who believes." One who believes in what? The disciples had believed, but they weren't believing in Christ. All things are possible for the one who believes in Christ. This is the same thing Paul said in Philippians chapter 4, verse 13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So the power isn't in your faith, the power is in Christ. And when you direct your faith at Christ as imperfect as that faith is, Christ releases his power. And the man gets it in verse 24, "Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe'."
I believe when we started the church, we did T ads on the T. And this is back before we had any professionals at the church. I put the first campaign together. One of the ads was a pretty good one. It said a sign from God. I thought that was pretty good. Another one said, "Don't stop believing." It had a picture of piano. One said, "I believe. Help my own belief." And you know why? Because I think that is one of the greatest professions of faith. It's like, "Lord, yes, I believe, but I still wrestle with doubt. Lord, I am simultaneously a believer and a doubter. Lord, I understand that faith is a gift and I need more of that faith. I need more of the gift." He understands that he doesn't have enough. So Lord, can you please fill that gap?
It's the same sentiment in Martin Luther's great phrase, "Simul Justus et Peccator." Lord, I'm a simultaneously righteous and a sinner. I am simultaneously justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, but I'm still a sinner. I still struggle. Lord, I want to see more of you. I want more of your power released in my life and in the lives of the people around me. Lord, help my unbelief.
We are a mixture of sinner saints. We're sinner saints. We were driving yesterday. When I have all the girls in the suburban, it gets very chatty. And we were chatting about birth, they wanted to talk about. My second daughter is like, "Did you name me Elizabeth because I was born in St. Elizabeth's hospital?" I said, "If that were the case, we would've named you Saint Elizabeth to live up to that name." But Jesus does call us saints, although we're still sinners. He calls us to be more and more evermore sanctify.
And that's exactly what's happening in the father's heart. Logically, faith and unbelief, it's as if they're opposites. But in the Christian experience, they're simultaneous realities. Jesus told his disciples in Gethsemane, in Mark 14:38, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The battle for faith is evident in the disciples, and it's a battle that continues in the father's heart, and it's a battle that continues in our hearts. But the father's unbelief is different than the scribe's unbelief. The father's unbelief is different than the Pharisees unbelief or the Herodians unbelief. His unbelief is not stubborn. His unbelief is humble. It's repentant. It's, "Lord, help me. Lord, I want to believe more, but I can't do it apart from you."
2 Corinthians 4:16 says, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
In Mark 9:25, "And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running 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.' 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'."
In exorcisms, the reality of the cure is often demonstrated through a final act of violence by the departing demon. And here this was the end goal to begin with, he wanted to kill the child through self-harm. And then as he's leaving, because Jesus had commanded him, he tries to kill the child. But verse 27, "Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer'."
Most texts also add in fasting, "This kind cannot be driven out anything by prayer and fasting." But the oldest manuscripts do not have the word fasting in there. We do believe in the power of fasting. Fasting is abstaining from food for a period of time in order to do what? In order to pray. The power isn't in the fasting, the power is in the prayer. So either way, if you add fasting or not, the power is in the prayer. Fasting helps heighten prayer. And once you start feeling the hunger pangs, you start crying out to God in a more desperate way.
But Jesus here emphasizes that the demon is cast out by prayer. You were faithless. And how does that reveal itself? In the fact that you did not pray. And you stop here and you say, "How in the world did the disciples forget to pray? Jesus, why couldn't we cast out a demon?" You forgot to pray. You say, "Oh, we forgot to pray. We forgot the most important part." Oh my goodness. And you say, "Why? Why did that happen?" I'll tell you why. Whenever you have a situation like this, it's heightened spiritual battle. It's chaos, a lot of emotions, a lot of people, a lot of commotion and everyone's demanding, "Disciples help us. Disciples help us." And then the scribes are there and they're like, "Yeah, you're losers. You can't help us." And they can't do anything either.
And in moments like that, you try to fix the situation in your power and you start relying on your strength. You start relying on your past experience. You start relying on anointing and you forget the most important part of the equation, which is God. You forget to pray to the Lord.
So friends, this is the punchline of the story. The punchline of the story is, if you want to be used powerfully in the kingdom of God, do not forget to pray. We are to be people of prayer, patterned by prayer. When Jesus Christ and Moses and Elijah then, when they were talking about his departure, when they were talking about His death, they understood that apart from Jesus Christ, prayer doesn't mean anything. A lot of people who don't believe in Christ, they pray. And Jesus here is revealing that apart from His death, burial, and resurrection, we do not have access to God apart from the substitutionary atone of Christ. So apart from Christ's departure, we can't experience his glory.
One of the most interesting things that Jesus ever said in the Gospel of Matthew, the very last thing he says before he departs from earth, he says, "Lo, I'm with you to the end of the age. I'm with you. I am with you until the end of the age." And then he leaves. You say, "How does that make any sense?" The disciples lost faith because they couldn't see the physical Christ in their presence. When he comes down, all of a sudden the lights come on. But Jesus Christ had to depart first with his death, then burial, resurrection. Then through his ascension, he had to depart in order to send us the Holy Spirit. And now the very moment that you repent of sin and you trust in Jesus Christ and when you pray in Jesus' name, we have access to God because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peter was on that mountain of transfiguration and he saw the glory of Jesus Christ. And then when he is writing to the early church about that experience, watch where he puts the emphasis, "Do you want to experience more glory?" He puts the emphasis on the scriptures. That it's through the holy scriptures, the deeper we go in the scriptures, the more we know the scriptures, the more glory of God is revealed to us.
Look at 2 Peter 1:16, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we meet known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for when he received honor and glory from God the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
The more we know the scriptures, love the scriptures, the more we love the word of God, the more we see the word of God, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, in the scriptures and the gospel.
At this time, we're going to transition to holy communion in which we remember the suffering of Christ on our behalf. For whom is holy communion? It is for repentant believers in Jesus Christ. It's for those who have turned from self-righteousness and turned from earning salvation, turned from sin turned to Christ. Recognizing our faith isn't perfect, but when it's directed in the perfect one, it's a salvific faith. So if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. Or if you are living in unrepentant sin as one who carries the name of Christ, we ask that you refrain as well. Unless right now you repent and believe in Christ, receive grace and then you're welcome to partake.
If you haven't received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring the elements to you. And I also need some elements. I forgot my second service elements. I'll read 1 Corinthians 9:23-32 to prepare us.
"For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread." Thank you. "And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then'."
"So eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly we would not be judged. And when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world."
You pray with me over holy communion. Oh heavenly father, we thank you for the gift of your beloved son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were willing to go to the cross, you were willing to endure the wrath of God, that you were willing to endure eternal hell to offer us heaven for eternity. And Lord, we repent of our sins now. We repent of our self-reliance. We repent of pride. We repent of seeking our glory above yours, falling short of your glory. And Lord, we receive your grace right now. We receive your mercy, your forgiveness, and your compassion. And Lord, by the power of the Spirit, bring to mind the suffering of Christ now as we remember his sufferings. And we pray this in the name of Christ, amen.
There are two lids, one on top. If you pull it back, it opens the cup and there's one below to open the bread. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread and after breaking it, he said, "This is my body, broken for you, take, eat and do this in remembrance of me." He then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is a cup of the new covenant of my blood, which poured out for the sins of many. Take, drink, and do this in remembrance of me."
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you were willing to endure the cross. Why? To glorify your beloved Father and for the joy that was set before you, the joy of bringing us into your kingdom, the joy of saving us, stubborn sinners, stubborn rebels. You saw the joy you would experience and bringing us into the household of God, regenerating us, removing hearts of stone, replacing them hearts that beat for you, hearts that long to glorify you by living lives of obedience and lives of faith.
Lord, continue to empower us by the Spirit, to do your work here on earth. And Lord, whatever demons there are around us, whatever demons and the people around us, whatever demons in this city, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ and we plead the blood of Jesus Christ, cast them out. And we pray, Lord, use us in the process. And we don't trust in ourselves or in our experience, or in our anointing, or in our calling. We trust only in the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names, the name that is more powerful than any demons. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.
