"If You Can"
The Sermon on the Move • Sermon • Submitted
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Mark 9:14-28
Mark 9:14-28
This is our second week moving from the Sermon on the Mount to the Sermon on the Move.
For a year we studied Jesus’ words that He taught. We read and examined the words that He said, and how they were relevant to those early followers, and how they are relevant to us now.
But then last week we shifted from just the words that He spoke to the actions He did.
We read about His compassion and love to the unlovable, to the broken, to the outcast.
He touched the untouchable in a way that brought restoration, healing, and cleanliness.
We SAW that this “religion” is about more than just hearing the words of Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the other writers of the Bible, but it is about DOING THE WORD OF GOD!
So, we are going to continue looking at the miracles and mighty works of Jesus. We are going to see how we should respond and react to the situations of life.
This morning we are going to switch it up a little and move to the book of Mark chapter 9.
The reality is the story I am going to read is found in all 3 of the synoptic gospels, but Mark gives the most detail on this account.
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 to him 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, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 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.” 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 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.”
PRAY
The Compassion Continues...
Last week Jesus showed Compassion to the leper by touching him when all He had to do was speak healing into his life.
But today the compassion seems to be elevated to another level.
I am sure that if I started asking people in this room about who they love the most, everyone here would say, “Jesus.” Why? because we are in church and that’s the “right” answer, right?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, etc.
Jesus said unless you hate your mother, father, brother, sister…you can’t be my disciple.
We are supposed to put Jesus above all else. He is our first love, but...
But more than a few would likely have another answer. You have someone or someone’s that run a REAL CLOSE second in your life. You have someone or someones that probably get more attention than Jesus.
Hopefully, even as I say that you are thinking about a spouse.
The Bible is clear that a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the 2 shall become 1 flesh.
BUT, there are these other people in our lives… They start out as little people that rely on us for their every need. We protect them and care for them. We feed them and teach them.
And somewhere in that process we get kinda attached.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Even as our kids get older, we have a responsibility for them and to them. We have a responsibility not only to them, but to God, to do our everything to see that they are following the Lord.
The Scripture we read this morning out of the book of Mark is about a child.
It is about a father.
It’s about Jesus.
But its also about the disciples, and the naysayers, and the onlookers.
Even as we are raising our children, and later in life as we continue to try to help them navigate life in a Godly way, we will face difficulties.
I am sure that if I asked each of you with children individually, you would tell me that that at some point, at least one of your children, either as a child or as an adult, has caused you grief.
At some point, you have spent some time with Jesus saying something similar to what this father had to say to Jesus… “Help Him/Her Lord, he/She has a devil.”
At some point you have had to pray to God for patience because you knew if you prayed for strength and wisdom you’d kill them and know how to hide the body.
Of course I am being serious, but trying to make jokes about it at the same time.
Maybe the problems you have had with one of your children wasn’t behavioral or spiritual, maybe it was physical, emotional, or mental.
The principle remains the same, when our kids are hurting, we hurt with them…AND JESUS CARES!!!
There is a time that we need to sit and we need to learn, there is a time when we just need to know that someone cares, and there is a time when we need action.
We need the kind of movement that brings changes and realigns situations to be right. To bring light into the darkness and establish peace in our lives and the lives of those around us!
As we read this passage we are getting a limited perspective. Most scholars believe that Mark is writing stories that Peter is retelling him. With that said, all of this was unfolding while Jesus, Peter, James, and John were absent from the rest of the disciples.
This was one of those situations where Jesus had taken His inner circle to let them experience something special. He took them to pray and to get alone with God.
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,
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
While they were there on the mountain, they experienced what they would not experience again until after the resurrection.
Isn’t it amazing how we can have these phenomenal experiences with God. We can be in His presence with an outpouring of His Spirit, and as soon as we leave that atmosphere, we are faced with seemingly impossible situations.
They are typically some of the best days and best experiences followed by the absolute worst.
Jesus, Peter, James, and John come down off of the Mount of Transfiguration and are faced with chaos and conflict.
In spite of this Jesus never loses His composure.
The Sermon on the Move relies on the power of God, and His omnipotence never changes.
It’s when we are relying on our own power, or our own reputation that we panic.
I’m guessing most of us here would somewhat lose our cool if we were in this situation. But Peter, James, and John had just been on the mountain with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. They had been in the presence of a miracle.
They had been in prayer and from all of that they had gained peace.
Jesus was God! He had just spent time on the mountain with the Father. His composure was calm, cool, and collected.
When Jesus came on the scene He took control and began asking questions trying to sort out the mess.
In all of this Jesus was facing 4 distinct groups
I. A Desperate Father and His Demonic Son
a. The Reason for the Visit
said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.
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.”
b. THE FATHER WAS DESPERATE. Just like the Leper from last week, he had no hope.
II. A Nosey Group of Interested Onlookers
a. Many will show up for the action. They show up for the big stuff, to be a part of the action and see the miracles.
b. Few choose the hard road. There were only 3 disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.
c. Following Jesus requires amazing commitment. Mark 8:34-36
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
III. The Critical Religious Leaders and Church Folk
a. The Scribes were engaged in the argument with the disciples. They were obviously disappointed and possibly taunting the disciples for their failure.
b. BUT WHY WEREN’T THEY EXORCISING THE DEMONS?
i. They certainly believed in the existence and the possibility of demonic possession. In the same respect they believed in the exorcism of demonically possessed people, BUT they likely looked to the exorcists and not the ultimate exorciser.
c. These people don’t deserve our attention. They are critical of anything and everything. They have ideas, but no follow through or action to fix anything.
d. Matthew 7:6
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
e. I believe that Jesus asked the DISCIPLES, “What are you arguing with them about.” I think there may have been a tone of, “Why are you wasting your time with them?”
IV. The Disappointing Disciples
a. Mark 3:13-15 They had been given authority over demons
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
b. Mark 6:7
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
c. Luke 10:17-20 They forgot what was most important
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
IF YOU CAN!!!!
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO THOSE THAT BELIEVE.
When we believe that Jesus CAN save our kids, grandkids, parents, friends, coworkers, etc. WE BEGIN TO ACT DIFFERENT!!!
We start walking different!
We start talking different.
You never see a team walk onto a court or a field looking defeated before the game starts turn it around and win.
What we have to do is believe (KNOW) that God CAN save those people we love.
We have to know that it is His will for them to be saved!
We have to walk before those people as saved people.
And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”