Disciples – An Obstacle to Faith

DISCIPLES – AN OBSTACLE TO FAITH

Mark 9:14-29

Here in this story you find a man who believes in Jesus…and who wants to believe even more in Jesus.

But he runs into an obstacle to his faith…
He runs into something that nearly derails the faith that he does have…not to speak of the faith that he would like to have.
What he runs into is Jesus’ disciples.

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

Are some of us obstacles too?

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

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

Peter, James and John have seen his real essence…they have seen His glory.
Not only that, but Jesus’ Messiah-ship has been confirmed by Moses and the Law, and Elijah and the prophets.
In addition, God Himself has spoken from the cloud and said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.”
It has been a glorious scene…and the disciples want to stay there and build shelters and live on the mountain.
Wouldn’t that have been great?
I think all of us would like to just stay on the mountain with God.

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

That is where people are hurting…and where people are searching.
You see, as much as we, as disciples, would like to stay on the mountain with God…God wants us in the valley where the people are. That is where the work of a disciple is.
Sometimes as Christians, we want to distance ourselves from others.
We want to seclude ourselves.
But that isn’t what God wants.
And so he leads them down the mountain.

And when they get down the mountain they are met with quite a scene.

The other disciples are in an argument with the teachers of the Law.

And when the crowd sees Jesus they run up to Him and Jesus asks, “What is going on? What are you discussing with the teachers of the Law?”

And a man steps out of the crowd and look what this man says in vs. 17. He says, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. And I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.”

This is what the argument was about.

This man brought this boy to have this spirit cast out.
And when the disciples couldn’t do it, the scribes jumped on them…and challenge their power and authority.
And you can almost imagine what it must have been like.
The disciples keep trying and trying.
And with every failed try the scribes snicker and sneer some more.
And the disciples can’t figure out what is wrong.
And so they try again and again.
And still nothing works….
They must have been frustrated…and disappointed…and a little embarrassed.
If they could only cast out that spirit they could shut the scribes up.
But nothing worked.
The scribes must have enjoyed this.

But I want you to notice something else here. Notice verse 17 again.

Here this man is…he has this boy with this horrible spirit.
And notice what he says. He is speaking to Jesus here and he says, “Teacher, I brought YOU my son.”

Now look at the end of verse 18.

“And I told YOUR disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.”

This man says something here that we need to remember.

When this man brought this boy to the disciples, in his mind he was bringing this boy to Jesus.
He saw Jesus’ disciples as representatives of Jesus.
In his mind, what ever they could or couldn’t do was what Jesus could or couldn’t do.

And look at this. This man says, “I told YOUR disciples to cast out the spirit, and they could not do it.”

Do you know how disappointing this must have been for him?
This man had enough faith in Jesus to bring this boy for help.
And it couldn’t have been easy for this man to do this when you look at the problems this boy had.
We all know what it is like to travel with a sick child.
This child was more than just sick.
This had to be extremely difficult for this man.
But still, this man’s faith pushes him on.

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

But that is ok because Jesus’ disciples are there.
And in the past they have been able to cast out spirits.
Back in chapter 3 when Jesus called them to preach he also commissioned them to drive out demons.
And in chapter 6 He sent them out 2 by 2 and they came back and said “Lord we have driven out many demons in your name.”

So this man gets to the disciples.

His faith has brought him there.
He is probably excited…and full of hope.
And then they can’t cast out the spirit.
And when they can’t the teachers of the Law jump all over them.
And this huge argument takes place.
And when this man tells Jesus that the disciples “could not do it.”
Not only is he disappointed…but His faith has taken a huge hit!
“If the disciples can’t do it, then neither can Jesus.”
“If the disciples are fakes…then Jesus must be too.”

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

As disciples of Christ, people see us as a reflection of Christ.
They see us as representatives of Christ.

And what we do…or don’t do….

The way we act or don’t act…
The things we say or don’t say…has a tremendous impact on their faith.

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.

And if he doesn’t see us in church…studying our Bible….praying…loving…obeying Christ…giving of self…
If he doesn’t see that…then his faith is going to take a tremendous hit.
And instead of us being an encouragement to his faith…we will be an obstacle to his faith.

The story is told about two men who were neighbors…and one day one of the men was in his back yard working…and something didn’t go well, so he let out this loud, long burst of profanity.

And his neighbor next door called over the fence to him and said, “You shouldn’t speak like that.”
And the first man told the second, he said, “I know that I cuss a lot…and say ugly things. And I know that you are a Christian. But you and I both know that neither one of us means what we say.”

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

But when Ghandi was a young man he went to a Christian church in the southern part of India…and he was told to leave because of the color of his skin.
He never went back.
Later he wrote, “Perhaps we would all be Christians if it weren’t for the Christians.”

This man saw Jesus’ disciples as representatives of Christ.

And people today who are looking for faith…or who are desiring to grow in faith see us the same way.
And depending on what they see in us we can be an encouragement…or a hindrance to their faith.

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.

I cannot emphasize enough the roll we play in the shaping of the faith of others.

Look at verse 18. Jesus expresses his disappointment…not only in the disciples but to everyone. Look what he says: “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me?”

And look at what happens when they do. Vs. 20: And they brought the boy to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he {began} rolling about and foaming {at the mouth.} 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “And it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him,”‘ If You can!’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and {began} saying, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 And 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!” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.

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

If you are struggling with your faith…and you want to grow stronger in your faith…
I hope you will learn the lesson found here in these verses we just read.

This dad was disappointed by the disciples.

But when he pushed past the disciples and went straight to Christ…he got what his faith brought him for.

Some times Christians don’t live like they should.

As disciples, we some times fall way short.
But don’t let our failings stop you.
You press through until you get to Jesus…the one who never disappoints.

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

Jesus does not withhold his blessing from anyone because of the ineptness of the disciples.
His power is not limited by the inadequacies of His church.

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

Don’t let the flaws of Christians be a reason to stop believing.

Look now at verse 28. Jesus casts out the evil spirit…and he goes into the house…and the disciples ask, “Why couldn’t we drive out this spirit?”

Do you know why they ask that question?
They ask it because they are stunned they couldn’t do it.
After all, they had cast out spirits before.
They were experts at the business of exorcism.
They knew how to cast spirits out.
So they are stunned that they couldn’t do it.
So why couldn’t they do it?

Well, let me tell you.

Their failure was not because they didn’t believe that they could cast out that demon.
They had faith that they could do it,
That’s why they tried in the first place.
Other wise they would have just said, “We must wait on Jesus.”
So they didn’t fail because they didn’t believe they could do it.

So why did they fail?

Because Jesus said, “You are an unbelieving generation?”
You say, “Wait a second.”
“You just said they had faith.”

Yes. They had faith.

But who did they have faith in?
Their faith was in
They had faith in the process they had been using.
And it had replaced the faith they should have had in God.

Look at verse 29.

When Jesus says, “This kind only comes out by prayer”, He doesn’t mean that you got to know some secret little prayer to cast certain demons out.

If He did, why didn’t Jesus use one?
So he is not saying here that you have to say some secret little prayer.

But let me ask you, when you pray, what does that act of prayer indicate?

Doesn’t it indicate a dependence on God? A reliance on God?
When we go to God in prayer…aren’t we acknowledging to God that there are some things we cannot do…and in some matters, without God’s help we are helpless.

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.

They had begun to think that the healing and casting out of demons was something they could do and they were leaving God completely out of it.
They never could cast out demons by their own abilities…God deserved the credit, not them.
Their failure here was intended to get them to get their thinking back on track.
And what Jesus is saying to them is, “This kind of demon flees only by the power of God and not by the power of men.”
If they were going to cast this demon out they would need to depend on God’s powers and not their own perceived abilities.

How many of us have done this same thing?

How many of us think “It all depends on Me?”
“The reason those people were baptized is because I taught them.”
I have heard people say, “I baptized 10 people last year” as though those people’s salvation depended on them.
We don’t give any credit to God or the power of His word.

Preachers are bad about this.

We often think that the only way anyone is going to grow in their faith is if “I write a good sermon and if I am a dynamic preacher.”
Preachers often get discouraged and depressed when a congregation doesn’t grow or when people aren’t converted because they think “they are the ones who have to make it happen.”
- We are just the tools that God works through…and yes, I believe that we should always allow God to use us and we should put forth our very best efforts.
- But, when it comes to the work of God, we should not and must not leave God out of it…and for us to take credit for the growth and successes that occur is to set ourselves up to be humbled and embarrassed…just like these disciples were.

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

And if we leave God out of it, we won’t be able to do what we believe we can do either.

Let’s close with verse 19 again.

“And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!”

This is what Jesus said about these people.

What would Jesus say about us? This church?
What would He say about you?
Are you an unbeliever but don’t know that you are?
If so, I hope that you will learn from Jesus in the passage and repent.

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.

I hope you will push all obstacles aside…and come to Him.
If you will, you can be assured that He will not disappoint you.