Lord, I Believe

Mark 9:14-29

Robert and Mary Moffat were missionaries in Bechuanland (Bek-u-An-aland), now Botswana, in the early 1800s. They demonstrated unwavering faith and perseverance. Despite not a single soul embracing their message, they served the Tswana people for a decade. Even the leaders of their mission board questioned the prudence of their mission, but the thought of abandoning their post filled them with profound sorrow. Their perseverance, rooted in the belief that God was guiding their efforts and that they would witness the conversion of souls in His perfect time, is a powerful lesson for us all. It reminds us of the importance of trusting God’s plan, even when it seems complex or uncertain.

They stayed, and for two more years, darkness reigned. Then, one day, a friend in England told the Moffats he wanted to mail them a gift and asked what they would like. Believing that the Lord would bless their work, Mrs. Moffat replied, “Send us a communion set; I am sure it will soon be needed.”

God’s power and faithfulness are evident in the Moffats’ story. The Holy Spirit moved upon the villagers’ hearts, and soon, a small group of six converts united to form the first Christian congregation in that land. The delayed arrival of the communion set from England, just a day before the first commemoration of the Lord’s supper in Botswana, is a clear sign of God’s perfect timing and His response to their faith. This should reassure us that God’s timing is ideal, and we should trust in His plan for our lives.

As recorded in the Gospels, one prominent theme of Jesus’ earthly ministry is His invitation to people to place their faith in Him. Mark’s Gospel is no exception, as we’ve seen in our study thus far. The text for today is Mark 9:14-29, a dramatic illustration of faith coupled with the power of God. The testimony of a distraught father resonates with us, especially when our faith, too, seems weak. Our study is titled “Lord, I Believe.” This dramatic illustration will be a powerful guide for understanding and strengthening our faith.

Listen carefully as I read our text, Mark 9:14-29.

This record of Jesus casting out a demon reveals several KINDS of faith. We will observe how these kinds of faith are present in our journey and how we can grow in faith.

In our previous two episodes, we saw Peter, James, and John progress from the glorious mountaintop experience of the Transfiguration to the valley of the shadow of death. Seeing Jesus in His unveiled glory, followed by His immediate predictions of His impending death, and the tragic scene of the demon-possessed boy left them confused and questioning. In this context, the following kinds of faith are demonstrated.

The First KIND of Faith is,

            Weak Faith

As Jesus and the three disciples descended from the mountain, they intended to rejoin the other disciples. They noticed a huge crowd gathered around the nine disciples as they approached them and that the Jewish scribes were arguing about something.

What a contrast between the glorious and holy scenes on the mountain and the dark, ominous, grief-filled scenes they now faced. In many ways, this mirrors our experience as Christ-followers. The daily reality of life is the continuing struggle between good and evil, between the flesh and the spirit, and our mountaintop experiences are the exception rather than the rule.  

When the people in the crowd saw Jesus coming, they were exceedingly amazed and ran to greet Him. We’ll learn the reasons for their amazement in a moment. Turning to the scribes, Jesus asked them, “What are you arguing about with My disciples?” He must have noticed the nine disciples’ embarrassment and shame and immediately took over.  

A desperate father steps out from the crowd and speaks to Jesus at this precise moment. “Teacher, I have brought my son to You; he has a mute spirit. Whenever and wherever the spirit seizes him, it convulses and throws him down. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t.”

Why couldn’t the disciples cast out the demon? We read in Mark chapter six that they cast out many demons before this experience. So, what is happening here?

Notice what Jesus says next. “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” Jesus’ disciples were most likely the focus of these questions of reproof. His use of the word oh shows Jesus’ disappointment in them. He prefaced other laments with this word in different places in the Gospels. They were not faithless in the sense of treacherous, as we often use the word today, but their faith was weak. It was inadequate to meet the needs in front of them.

We can rephrase Jesus’ question in today’s language. “How long must I be with you and ‘put up with’ your lack of faith?” Do you sense exasperation in Jesus’ words? They had witnessed Him perform all kinds of miracles, yet they still struggled to believe in His person and power.

Would Jesus have similar questions for you and me? We, too, have seen Jesus’s power demonstrated many times in our lives and the lives of others. Yet, we often lack faith in His ability and willingness. I fear our prayers are frequently too tentative. We’re invited to come confidently to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) and persist in our asking (Luke 18). However, we often fail to ask, or we ask for the wrong things or reasons, according to James 4:2 and 3.

            Praise God, there is a remedy for weak faith. Like the characters in our text, we can grow into the following kind of faith.  

Another KIND of Faith is,

            Seeking Faith

            After rebuking His disciples, Jesus says, “Bring the boy to me.” Interesting! Why didn’t Jesus go to him? This calls forth faith on the part of the observers. The text is vague, saying, “Then they brought him to Jesus.” Who are “they”? I assume it was the father and some other men in the crowd. Despite their disappointment in the disciples’ failure, they exercised faith and obeyed Jesus’ command.

            When the evil spirit in the boy saw Jesus, he immediately experienced the symptoms the father listed earlier: convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and grinding his teeth. The glorious power of Christ seen on the mountain now clashes head-on with the powers of darkness.  

Jesus addressed the history of this boy’s case just as a doctor would. “How long has this been happening?” The father told Jesus that the affliction began in childhood. The demon often cast the boy into the fire or water, attempting to destroy him. What a tragic situation!

            Try to imagine the emotion in these scenes. See the father’s distress and hear his cry for help. “If you can do ANYTHING, have compassion on us and help us (immediately)!” The word for help is boetheo in verse 22. The word comes from boe, a cry, and theo, to run = to run at a cry for help. This is a vivid picture of the father’s plight.

Can you hear the pathos in his voice? He is at his wit’s end and begging Jesus to do anything. In this case, the Greek idiom is lost in translation. Jesus repeats the father’s words, “If you can…” to him: “If you can believe, all things are possible for the one who has faith.” He is challenging the father’s faith.

            I love the father’s response! “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” This father had faith but confessed it was weak and craved more faith. There are also essential details in the grammar here. In verse 22, the father cries for instantaneous help – “help us now.” In verse 24, his plea is, “Keep on helping my unbelief.” Through Jesus, we don’t need perfect personal righteousness, just repentant helplessness, to access the power of God.

While I’ve never experienced the trauma of a demon-possessed child, I want God to strengthen my faith continually. Is that a desire you have, too? Have you witnessed the power of godly faith in your life? How often has your weak faith been changed to a seeking faith? This will only happen when you and I come to the end of ourselves and realize that Jesus is our only hope.

The faith of the men who brought the boy to Jesus (v. 20) and the seeking faith of the distraught father (v. 24) resulted in the following kind of faith.  

The Next KIND of Faith is,

            Healing Faith

            When Jesus saw the crowd quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit by saying, “Deaf and mute spirit, I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!” Notice that Jesus addressed the demon as separate from the boy. This makes it difficult to believe that Jesus was merely indulging popular belief in a superstition. Today, many would diagnose such a person as having a mental illness. While there are legitimate diagnoses of mental disease, many cases are rooted in deep spiritual needs.

In this case, Jesus regards the demon as the cause of the boy’s misfortune and issues a direct command. After crying out and convulsing the boy violently, the evil spirit came out of him, leaving him as lifeless-looking as a dead person. Many of the observers said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

            Again, imagine the level of emotions experienced by this father and son. Instead of the tortured relationship between them because of the demon’s power and their inability to communicate with each other, there is now joy and laughter, speech and hearing, and mutual love and acceptance. We don’t know how old the boy was, but this was a long-term condition that was reversed. We can hardly identify with the magnitude of this change without having had a similar experience.

            Yet, in a measure, this is the experience of every genuinely born-again Believer. Before our rescue by Christ, we were all under the control of Satan. He had us bound in sin with our evil thoughts and wrong actions. Even though we may have wanted to change, we were powerless to accomplish it alone. Then, as it were, someone metaphorically stepped out of the crowd and took us to Jesus. When we met Him, sin’s shackles were broken, and we were set free!

            However, that isn’t the end of the struggle. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 that “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” He continues in verse 18, advising us to “[pray] always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

            This dramatic demonstration of Jesus’ power in healing this boy made the nine disciples question their failure. Their question leads us to the final kind of faith.

The Final KIND of Faith is,

            Misplaced Faith

            After this fantastic event concluded and Jesus was alone with the Twelve, they asked Him, “Why were we unable to cast out the demon?” Jesus responded, “This kind of demon cannot come out except by prayer and fasting.” Their earlier success in casting out demons may have encouraged them to think they could accomplish it at any time or place of their choosing. That was a mistake.

            There is controversy over whether the original manuscripts of verse 29 include fasting with the qualification of prayer. Regardless of where you come out on that, prayer and fasting are often coupled throughout the Scriptures. Fasting helps clear our minds and centers our thoughts on God and His power. It also indicates our understanding of our powerlessness and dependence on God.

The disciples failed to understand their need for a continual connection to Jesus’s power. Their neglect of prayer caused a loss of power. Their faith was misplaced. They had too much faith in themselves and too little faith in Christ. This was a valuable lesson for them, which they probably remembered as long as they lived.

How much we are like them! How easily we underestimate the power of evil in our world and ourselves. How easily we forget that “without [Him} we can do nothing.” The things we learn from painful experiences stay in our memories far longer than what we only hear with our ears. Like the disciples, we do not like to be reminded that we can do nothing without Christ.

            The difficulty of miracles isn’t the lack of God’s power but the difficulty of our belief. The challenges of believing in God in our age are undeniably significant. Doubt seems to be in the very air we breathe. Academia is charged with currents of distrust in anything supernatural, and physical science discards anything that cannot be proven by experimentation and demonstration.

            The moral and spiritual characteristics of our age are not conducive to faith. Our wealth, comfort, and luxury do not promote healthy soil for faith to grow. All these and more concentrate our thoughts on the material rather than eternal realities.

            Yet, as we learn from this account, as great as these difficulties are, they are far from impossible. All things are possible with God and to us if we dwell upon what is eternal, infinite, and invisible and are thoroughly infused with the Spirit of God.

            Have you confessed, along with the desperate father in this narrative, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief?” If you have, then you are exercising a kind of faith that God can bless and honor. That doesn’t mean all your desires will be met, but you can trust God to move you from weak faith to seeking faith to healing faith and a renewed awareness of your complete dependence on Him. He will provide you with everything you need. I trust you will find it so in your life.