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Disciples – An Obstacle To Faith

DISCIPLES – AN OBSTACLE TO FAITH

Matthew 17:14-21

Here in this story you find a man who believes in Jesus…He believes that Jesus can help.

Can you imagine….those who were “following Jesus”…those who claimed to be His disciples being obstacles to another man’s faith?

Well, let’s study the passage and see. Let’s set the context.

Jesus has been up on the mountain. He has been transfigured.

But Jesus leads them back down the mountain because that is where the people are.

And when they get down the mountain they are met by a multitude of people…a crowd.

And out of this crowd…this multitude a man comes up to Jesus and look what he says here in Matthew 17: 15-16:

“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 “And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” (Lunatic – moon struck; ruled by the moon)

 This is what the argument that Mark mentions was all about.

But I want you to notice something else here. Notice verse 16 again.

This man says something here that we need to remember.

And think about this…this man says, “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

And he gets to where Jesus’ is supposed to be…but Jesus isn’t there.

So this man gets to the disciples.

Did you know that people who are looking for faith see us the same way?

And what we do…or don’t do….

A man comes to a point where he is trying to decide whether or not he should give God a chance in his life…and so he looks at us who claim to be disciples of Christ.

 Ghandi….was so impressed with Jesus that Jesus’ teaching became the basis for all that he did.

This man saw Jesus’ disciples as representatives of Christ.

Not only that, but just like these disciples gave fuel to the cause of the scribes, we too can be an encouragement to the unbelief that others already have.

Look at verse 18. Look what Jesus says: “O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me?”

 So, look at what Jesus does in verse 18: And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

If you are looking for faith…if you are trying to decide whether or not you should give Jesus a chance with your life…

This dad was disappointed by the disciples.

Sometimes Christians don’t live like they should.

It is He who can save…He who can heal your hurts…and He who can help.

You press through to Jesus…and hold on to Him…regardless of what His disciples around you might do.

Look now at verse 19. Jesus casts out the evil spirit…and he goes into the house…and the disciples ask, “Why couldn’t we drive out this spirit?”

Look at verse 20-21: And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21[“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”] 

 Listen, the power to cast out demons and to perform miracles was never given to us today.

So why couldn’t they? Why couldn’t they cure this boy?

So, how lacking were they in their faith…well look at what Jesus says; “…for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

And notice what else they did. Look at verse 21. I know this is a disputed verse…these words may have been added in later manuscripts from Mark 9:29…so even though they may not have been original with Matthew we do find them in Mark 9…but notice what they say: But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Now, let me tell you what is significant about this.

And what that indicates is, back in verse 16 when they tried to cast out the demon…they had faith that they could do it or otherwise they would not have even tried…they would have just said, “We need to wait for Jesus.”

These disciples had cast out demons before and what has happened here is they had cast out enough demons that they had forgotten who was actually working through them to defeat those demons.

How many of us have done this same thing?

Preachers are bad about this.

These disciples couldn’t do what they believed they could do because they left God out of it.

Let’s close with verse 17 again.

 This is what Jesus said about these people.

For some of you, if you are trying to decide whether or not to give God a chance…I hope that you will do what this dad did here in this passage.