Word of God says, 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 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, all 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 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, 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 own belief. And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mutant, deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, he 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 can we not cast it out? And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. Amen. Please be seated. And keep your place in Mark chapter 9. Thank you. Mark 9, we just heard the text. We'll be going through verses 14 to 32. Jesus said, I will be with you always. But what exactly did he mean? There's no doubt that there are times where we feel his presence. We feel his presence in our prayer closets, in corporate worship. I'm sure you could report times where his sovereign power was just so evident in your life. But if we're honest, there are times we feel his absence as well. We recognize that when scripture says that he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God, he feels so far away. How can he who said, I will be with you always, truly be with us now? When you're going through times of grief, you feel far from God. or just in the everyday mundane routines of life, when the copy machine is jammed, when we're stuck in traffic, when we sleep past the alarm, when we deal with difficult co-workers, where is Jesus? Do you not feel, in times like those, disconnected? At various times in life, when we feel disconnected from something or some event, we try to replicate that experience. Even when we can't be there, we try to view it or listen to it. Growing up, I was a very ardent Red Sox fan, right here in the New York Yankee fan territory. And wouldn't it be amazing that after all those years, that the year they finally win the World Series, I would be at a fundamentalist Bible college with no internet and no TV in sight. I remember I just purchased a cell phone. Of course, back then it wasn't a smartphone. So I downloaded an app. I think back then we called them programs. I still don't know when we changed from program to app. It just sort of happened. over time. But there was this little program and it was an LED baseball field. And when the runner was on first, there would be like a bold dot there. And it was probably 10 minutes delayed. You had to refresh and refresh. And this is what I would do. And that cost a lot of data. And I was simply trying to enter into something that I couldn't be there live for. I couldn't watch on TV. I couldn't listen to on the radio. I was cut off except that little LED screen. I went to bed one of those nights thinking the Red Sox didn't even make it to the World Series because they were down so far, but yet they came back to win. We do this all the time. We try to enter into an experience even when we cannot be physically there. When you go to a concert and you have a great experience, if the band entertained you enough, you're likely to go to the concession stand and buy the CD so you can go home and listen to it again and again. This is why we often look back on memories, videos of our weddings, photographs. If you're in a relationship or been in one where you're so in love, you do whatever you can to hear the voice of that significant other. In fact, today with apps like FaceTime and Zoom, one would wonder why you would resort to just a phone call when you can have a video chat. That would give you a deeper experience. Or before that technology, one would wonder why would a boyfriend or girlfriend send letters through snail mail when you can make a phone call and hear their voice? We take these things for granted, don't we? It wasn't too long ago in human history where in long periods of time would go by before you can hear back from your loved one. Maybe you've read novels or seen movies set in olden times where women would absolutely cherish and treasure a love note written to her by her fiance or husband when they were off to war. And that treasured note was a small way to make up for a lack of physical proximity. But that note was everything to her. Now, how does this relate to our relationship with Christ? We could all relate, perhaps, to the mountaintop moment. We talked about this last time, the transfiguration, seeing Christ in all of his glory. And Peter was definitely on to something when he said, Lord, it is good for us to be here. And he desired to build temples, one for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and just bask in that glory forever. But it wasn't meant to be at that moment. There was a valley below. And there were nine other disciples that weren't up in that mountaintop. And those nine disciples, they didn't have the close physical proximity to Jesus and His glory that Peter, James, and John did. They were in the valley. They were dealing with the here and the now. And down in the valley, what do we find? We find scribes arguing, people seeking healing, crowds gathering. There is perhaps no greater contrast between what's happening at the top of the mountain and the valley below. To see the glory of Jesus Christ as those disciples did far outweighs a World Series Championship, a moving concert, or even a deep romantic relationship. Who would want to leave that? Who would want to leave the presence of the glory of Christ and go down into that valley with all those needs and all that conflict? But here we are. Here we are. We are here with those nine other disciples, as it were, in the valley of this world. And in this world is pain and suffering, conflict and opposition, trials and temptations. As Warren Wearsby said, in one day, a disciple can move from the glory of heaven to the attacks of hell. The big mistake that we make, my brethren, is that we think these two experiences the glory of the mountain and the suffering in the valley, we believe that they're mutually exclusive. And I believe this is why the disciples could not heal that demon-possessed boy. But here's the truth. Here's the thesis I want to drive home this afternoon. By faith, we have access to that same mountaintop power while we dwell in the valley. By faith, you and I have the same access to the mountaintop power of Christ, even while we dwell in the valley. And the mistake that we make is thinking that after I've basked in Christ's glory, I had a great worship experience, or I saw Christ come through with the miracle, and we go back to work on Monday, that somehow the power of Christ is diminished. That is wrong thinking. The truth is we simply have ceased tapping into that power. And I hope that today's text shows you that they are indeed connected. So let's look more deeply in Mark chapter 9 verse 14 to 32. We'll begin just by a few introductory comments because this is a tough passage. This is a passage of scripture that raises many questions. As you read it, hopefully in preparation for the sermon today, or you read it as Brother A.D.L. gave us the reading, maybe some of these questions came to your mind. I have about five here. One is, who is the faithless generation that Jesus decries? When he says, oh, faithless generation, is he talking to the scribes who are arguing with the disciples? Is he talking to the father whose boy wasn't being healed? Is he talking to the disciples themselves? Or does he mean everyone in the crowd? Another question that you might ask is, why does Jesus ask the father of the boy how long these convulsions are taking place? I mean, if Jesus is divine, he knows the answer, so why does he bother saying, how long has your boy suffered like this? Another question you might ask is, how do we take the statement, all things are possible for him who believes? That almost sounds like a Hallmark card, right? All things? You really mean all things, Jesus? All I have to do is believe, and all things are possible? What does He mean by that? And is Jesus here saying that there are levels of demons, and when He says, this type can only be cast out by prayer, is Jesus saying that other demons don't need that much power to be cast out, but this type of demon needs to be cast out by prayer? And then finally, does he say prayer only? Or does he say prayer and fasting? If you're here today and you have a different version of the Bible than what was up there, you might say, my Bible says prayer and fasting. Why does the ESV and other modern translations only say prayer? What's going on there? So hopefully I whet your appetite for some intriguing questions, but here's a caveat up front. Hopefully as I walk you through this narrative, I will clarify some of those questions, but I will tell you up front, you won't have satisfactory answers to every one of them. My brethren, we must not miss the forest from the trees. Any unanswered questions will not change the overall message of today's passage. The first thing we see is in verse 14 to 16, Jesus and his inner circle descend from the mountain to a commotion down below. It says, 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? You see what I mean by the contrast? They were just up in the glory of the kingdom. They literally saw a glimpse of the kingdom of the glory of God, and as soon as they come down to the mountain, what do they get? Commotion. Arguing. Conflict. The other nine disciples arguing with the scribes. This arguing seemed to be so intense that people missed Jesus. until they finally recognized him and then came running because they had been so hopelessly done with the disciples. And finally, here comes Jesus, and they leave those disciples and run to him. I just wonder, as a side note, what does this say about us as disciples and our tendency to engage in argument and conflict? Oh sure, when you preach the gospel, you know this, you will get arguments. But if your goal in life is simply to own the libs or to own the atheists and just come at them with intellectual arguments and go back and forth in shouting matches, whether somewhere out in the street or somewhere on Twitter, what does that do for your testimony? I'm not saying we don't argue and we argue well, but the picture that we get in Mark 9 is not intellectual back and forth charitable arguments full of grace and truth. We're getting arguments that seem to be coming out of frustration. The disciples could not heal this boy. And you just wonder, what were people arguing about? Why can't you heal him? Do you actually have power? Does your leader have power? Do you not want to heal him? Imagine what that scene looked like. Just imagine a chaotic scene of people arguing within a crowd. I don't know about you, if I were Peter and I came down to that, I'd say, can we go back up to the top of the mountain? Arguing for the faith, and yet Jesus gets lost in the crowd. We have to be careful, brethren, when we bring the gospel to a lost and dying world, that we don't get so bent on being right and arguing that we lose the point of pointing people to Christ. And so here's the argument happening, and then we move on to Jesus asking, what are you arguing about with them? What is this all about? Now, it should go without saying, Jesus is the divine Son of God. He knows exactly what's happening, but he wants to bear this out. He wants them to report what this argument is about. So look at verse 17 to 24. Someone from the crowd answered him, 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. So we see how quickly the attention goes from the disciples, who are frustrated, powerless, and resorting to nothing more than just arguing with the crowd, to Jesus, who is loving, compassionate, who's asking questions, who's listening, and who is willing to help the man and his son. The attention now shifts from his representatives to the real deal himself. William Lane says, the return from the glory of the transfiguration to the reality of the demonic possession serves to reinforce the theme that Jesus enters his glory only through confrontation and with the demonic and the suffering this entails. Two weeks ago, we were in the previous passage, and you might remember that temporal suffering precedes eternal glory. So as Jesus is making his way through this world to the right hand of the Father, he must go through this suffering. Now, a few notes about this passage and this section. This is one of the only passages in Mark where he has parallel passages to Matthew and Luke, and Mark is actually the one that includes more detail. He talks about the boy being mute, a sort of epilepsy it seems that he has, but this is not a medical condition. This is an epilepsy that comes about through demonic possession. Furthermore, it may intrigue you that the demon seems to cast this boy into water and fire. Where is that coming from? To my mind, I'm like, where is that coming from? But commentators tell us that in 1st century Palestine, there were unfenced bodies of water. We take for granted that most bodies of water have signs, danger and fences, but that wasn't the case in 1st century. Palestine. The same is true with open fires, whether it be for trash or whatever else. And so, throughout that land, there were dangers. But if you were living there, you would train yourself to avoid the danger. You wouldn't need a sign or a fence. You would simply go around the water, go around the fire. But when you're possessed by a demon, the demon brings you into that danger. And this caused this boy to suffer, and of course, his family along with him. So Jesus rebukes his disciples. I believe he's talking to his disciples. Oh, faithless generation. To be faithless, it's in the definition, means you lack what? You lack faith. And we'll learn later in the passage that it was that lack of faith that would keep the disciples from being able to heal this boy. Remember that Jesus gave a commission. This is now three, four chapters ago in our study in Mark. He gave the commission to the disciples to go preach the gospel and to cast out demons. So I'm sure these disciples, as they were trying to cast a demon out and couldn't do it, thought, we had done this before. We had cast out demons before. What's going on? Our power seems to have been lost. But they were lacking faith, and we'll get to that later. And that's why I think Jesus says, oh, faithless generation, how long will I bear with these faithless disciples? We've seen their lack of faith in the boat. We've seen their lack of faith on the mountainside with the hungry crowds. And now, once again, we see their lack of faith with the demon. So Jesus then shifts his attention from rebuking the disciples to now talking to the father of the child in a very loving, pastoral sort of way. He asked him, how long has your boy been having these convulsions? And really, the key here is not to say, well, this shows Jesus didn't know everything. Of course. It's like when God said to Adam, Adam, where are you? Of course, God knew where Adam was. Jesus is the divine son of God. He knew perfectly well what he was going to do with this child. but to bring out the reality of suffering, to even let everyone around him hear that this was not a one-time thing, but this boy has been suffering for a long time. He asked the father to report how long this has been happening. And of course, the father says in verse 21, from childhood. This was an ongoing thing. This father had been enduring, watching his child from childhood. Endure this demonic attack. This was a desperate desperate father, and I'm sure we don't have the background to him But just think about what's going on in Palestine. He's hearing the reports of this this great caster out of demons He comes to a place where the disciples are literally there the very disciples that I'm sure he's heard They also have the power to cast out demons and and just think about what are the odds? He's able to be in the same place at the same time. He didn't have internet. He didn't have a car He was able to find them and he finds them and he brings his boy to them and they can't heal him this is a sign of desperation and So you've seen it already but The father then cries out to Jesus, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. If you can do anything. And Jesus turns this around. Verse 23, it's kind of oddly worded. He says, if you can. He says if you can in a sort of like repeating it back to the man rhetorically. If you can, if I can, excuse me. I'm the son of God. He doesn't say it like that, but that's the thrust of what he means when he repeats back, if you can. Of course Jesus can. The question is not whether Jesus can heal the boy. The question is, do you believe that he can? Faith is what unlocks the power. The power is not in and of itself powerless. but it's given to those who have faith. This is not to say that Jesus never healed someone who didn't have faith. He's a sovereign God, but that we can't presume upon him, that the one thing he requires of us is to believe. I think at this point, the Father says, if you can, he may have come up to the valley believing Jesus can, but after seeing the disciples fail, he's like, is there anything you can do? I'm at my wit's end here. So when Jesus responds, all things are possible to the one who believes, let's not take that out of context. It makes for a good bumper sticker, right? Like Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. How many times that's out of context? People say that before they get up to the plate or before they, for a basketball game, as if God is invested in who wins the basketball game, has a favorite team. Don't take Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ as an excuse to not study for a test and think you're gonna get 100. So likewise, when Jesus says, all things are possible to the one who believes, he's not giving this sort of generic, hallmark, empty phrase. He's responding to the man, and he's saying, my power does not reside in you, it's in me. And I'm not at the mercy of you. I can give my power to whomever I choose, whenever I choose. But if you would like to tap into this power, it will only become possible to you if you believe. Here's what Derek Thomas says. I thought it was helpful. All things are possible to him who believes is this. It means that it is possible for me to care for a boy who is possessed by an evil spirit and take the losses and the crosses that come with it. To speak like Job in a time of grief and say the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. All things are possible means I'm able to turn the other cheek and go the second mile. And it means it's possible for me to overcome evil with good. It's possible for me to be poor in spirit and mourn for my sin and be pure in heart. That everything God can ask of me, Whatever duty, whatever command, it is possible for me, if I believe, to bear any burden, to cross any river, to endure any pain, to suffer any loss, to pass through any shame. That's what it means that everything is possible to him who believes. And so to sum that up, Jesus is saying, this has nothing to do with my ability to heal. Everything in this situation depends on your ability to believe, not my ability to act. That tells us, brethren, not to set limits on the power of God. healing and miracles is to be the response to faith in Jesus through whom and only through whom the power of God is released. Jesus thus calls for the faith which bows its head before the concealed glory of God. And now in response to that question, What does Jesus do? Verse 25 to 27, 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. Here's the miracle that we've been waiting for. Here's what the disciples could not do. And all that this father had to do was bring the boy to Jesus. It seems that maybe this is what the disciples did not do. And this boy lives through what seems like death. Notice that when Jesus rebukes the spirit, there's such a manic episode here that it results in everyone around Jesus to say, that boy just died. Something happened here. And then Jesus takes him by the hand and lifts him up and he arose. This is a foreshadow of what would happen to Jesus. And it's a foreshadow of what happens to all of us. We are dead in trespasses and sins. We are under the power of the evil one. And if you were to see our spirits, you would see they are completely dead. We are corpses. But when Jesus comes into our lives, he takes us by the hand. He lifts us up and he makes us alive. What a picture of our salvation. Having done this amazing miracle, Jesus then takes his disciples aside, verse 28 and 29. 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. I'm sure the disciples, put yourself in their shoes. I'd want to know. I mean, weeks ago, maybe months ago, if I'm a disciple, I'm casting out demons here. I can't cast this one out. Jesus comes and casts it out. So I want to know. Jesus, why couldn't I do this? And his answer was, it can't be driven out by anything but prayer. Now briefly, let me address the issue of the textual variant. I won't get into it too much, but a textual variant, if you don't know, is that when you look back in manuscripts, that means handwritten copies of the Greek translations of the Old Testament, Greek copies of the New Testament, as you compare copies together, you'll see that in some areas there are disagreements. Someone who copied might have added a word, taken away a word. And most of these things are easy for the translator to look at and say, oh, clearly this was a mistake, and then they translate it into our Bibles. And that's why even when you read the King James, the ESV, and so on, you find over 95% agreement. But then there's that little bit of a percentage where maybe even in this room, some of your Bibles say prayer and fasting, and other Bibles like mine say prayer. Please do not get caught up in the conspiracies that will tell you that someone is on an agenda to take fasting out, and that's why it's not in the modern versions. If you have questions about that, I'd love to talk to you about it, because I used to believe that. No longer do. There are three reasons why I think it's correct to say that Jesus did not add the word fasting, that the word fasting was actually added to the manuscript tradition within perhaps a couple hundred years, and then all the popular copies as they spread across the Roman Empire and Northern Africa just retained it until other discoveries were made. Before I tell you the three reasons why, I want you to understand that if The wonderful thing that God has done in preserving the text for us is when we look at variants like this They really don't affect much of the meaning If you're into fasting as we should be and I would say woefully not as much as we should be there are other passages that talk about Fasting so the importance of fasting is is absolutely in the New Testament in addition to that You don't lose anything by adding the word fasting. You actually might even gain something. So it's not heresy if one translation is right and the other one is wrong. They're both teaching truth. They're both teaching that we need to pray, we need to fast. But I believe that what Jesus said in verse 29 was just prayer for three reasons, very briefly. One is the manuscript tradition itself. While most manuscripts do have the words end fasting, Including some early ones some of the most important discoveries of ancient manuscripts that we have do not include it That's number one Secondly, we find that there's a textual tradition of adding the word fasting to other passages. So while this passage might be more obscure, if you look at some of the other questions in the New Testament about why does this Bible say fasting and this one doesn't, it's very clear from the evidence that later, centuries later, the word fasting started to appear. And that coincides with an increased emphasis on fasting, which was happening in the church as the church was gaining more power and adding more practices to its theology. So if it's true in other passages, we could assume it might also be true here. And thirdly, theologically and biblically, Jesus did tell his disciples that while he's still with them, they remembered that about the bridegroom. And so fasting is something that we do in the physical absence of Jesus, not while he's there with us. Therefore, it seems unlikely he would tell his disciples then and there that fasting was necessary. Now, that was our commercial break as to why I think verse 29 only says prayer. But again, let's not miss the forest from the trees. If your Bible says, end fasting, and that's what you want to hold to, I don't think it changes the meaning of this. Jesus now takes them to a house. He answers the question, why couldn't we cast out the demon? There's implicit criticism here. The disciples were not acting in faith. They were not acting with prayer. This is why I think when he says, oh, faithless generation, he's speaking primarily to his followers. One commentator says, the healing of the possessed boy demonstrates what faith expressed through prayer could have accomplished, even though Jesus was absent from his disciples. So as I bring this back, I want you to get this. If I lost you a little bit on the manuscript thing, please pay attention. Here's the point. The nine disciples who are at the bottom of the mountain had the same access to the same power on the top of the mountain through faith and prayer. And the reason why they couldn't cast out the demon is because they did not pray. They did not act in faith. They were trusting in their own power and their own ability. They had seen Jesus work through them in casting out demons. They tried to do it in their own power. They didn't access Christ by faith. It had nothing to do with the fact that He was up there while they were down there. Because the point is, as I said in the opening, those two are not mutually exclusive. Jesus says, I will be with you always. And though he was with Peter, James, and John on the top of the mountain, if those disciples on the bottom would have just prayed, they would have access to his power. And this is not an access that's a manufactured replica, like the CD that you buy at the concert. This is a real path of access into the presence of God. And their failure to use this power of access is the reason why they failed the task. In fact, who is exhibiting the greater faith in this passage? It's not the disciples, and it's certainly not the scribes. It's the father of the boy. Because what does the father do? He goes to Christ, and he asks if you will have compassion. He said he didn't have full faith. He said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. But he cried out, and he called on Jesus. Even with imperfect faith, he called on Jesus, and Jesus did all the work. You see, the disciples are like the modern day faith healers in this moment. acting in their own power, convincing others that they have the power to heal. But that power, when it is done not in the power of Jesus, is a phony power. Yet the Father, who doesn't have nearly as much doctrinal knowledge as the disciples, in simple faith, asks Jesus, and Jesus delivers. It's sort of like the parable of the tax collector and the publican. The publican and the pharisee, right? And the pharisee comes to the temple, and he's got all these lofty words, and, Dear God, I thank you. I'm not like this peasant, and I give tithes, and I, I, I, I, I. And the publican just kind of stands afar off, beats his breast, and says, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And who goes to his house justified? It was the publican. Who gets the miracle here? The Father. The Father doesn't have the theology to argue with the scribes, but he has simple faith. And Christ heals his child. Now we wrap up the text in verse 30 and 32. This could be another section, but I bring it in here to include that Jesus, now for the second time to his disciples, predicts his passion, his death and resurrection. Verse 30 says, They went on from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know. For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him, Now remember, Mark, over and over again, presents the disciples as lacking in faith, lacking in understanding. Even when they seem to make a breakthrough, like a few chapters ago, when Peter said, you are the Christ, right? He got the answer correct. There's still a lack of faith. They still see, but they see dimly. And when Jesus now talks again about his death and resurrection, It says in verse 32, they were afraid to ask him. I think they've learned their lesson. Every time they ask him something, he turns it around on them, right? He says something convicting or he includes something that, wow, if I really follow this, it's going to cost me a lot. It's gonna be painful. So rather than ask him, they just sort of talk amongst themselves and then they stop. But what does this point us to? It points us to the ultimate suffering, the purpose for which Christ came. It reminds us that He didn't come just to cast out demons. He came with a mission in mind, and the mission was to go to a cross, to bear the sins of many, and to rise again the third day. And why? So that He can be the substitute for those who repent and believe in Him. And so, while we reflect on that for a moment, if you're here, if you're listening on the video, if you hear this later in the recording, and you don't know Jesus, You may be like the Father. You want Jesus to heal or do something amazing in your life, but the most amazing thing He can do is save your soul. And in order for Him to save your soul, He must go to the cross. He must bear the shame and the penalty for sins that you and I have committed. He's perfectly righteous, and we are completely sinful. But He bore our sins on the cross. On the third day he rose again and he says, if anyone believes in me they shall not perish but have everlasting life. I pray that you will embrace this gospel. But let me wrap it up now for Christians. What is the application of today's message? I would say that it is faith is the key to kingdom power. Faith is the key to kingdom power. Listen, sometimes you go to a church service and between the sermon and the songs and communion and fellowship you are living on the mountaintop and you go home so encouraged and then Monday morning the alarm hits, you roll into work, the copy machine is jammed, your co-workers are mean to you, your clients are difficult or whatever it is and you forget the mountaintop experience you just had the day before. Just because there's difficulty in life does not mean that the kingdom has lost its power. You and I have the opportunity to access that power any day because a way has been opened for us. Now, I don't mean you go to work and you tell your boss you're going to spend three hours removed from the job that he's paying you for and you're on your knees praying. But what I mean is that by faith, we can enter in. We could actually do what Paul says, pray without ceasing. Someone told me years ago that even when you're standing up, your spirit can still be on its knees. Are we praying? Are we asking in faith? One commentator suggested that the reason why Mark goes into so much detail here and presents Jesus as that gentle pastor is because his original audience in Rome would have felt that same sort of powerlessness, that same sort of absence from Jesus as you and I feel when we go through opposition. They were going through persecution in Rome, and Mark writes this to them, and he's showing them, as they're reading this, that they too have access to that same power that Peter, James, and John had. So if faithlessness is the rebuke of today's text, then the application is for us to have faith. And you see it there, there's a few characteristics of faith from this text I will go into. One, It's a faith that connects eternal glory to present suffering. A faith that connects eternal glory to present suffering. That means that when you're going through the suffering, you don't forget the glory is real. Too many of us compartmentalize our lives. I talk Christianese on Sunday, maybe on Tuesday night, talk about prayer and this and that, but all the other days, it's just the here and now. And we forget that by faith, we actually connect the two. Danny Akin gives us a helpful contrast, right? There was a transfiguration on the mountain, healing in the valley. At the transfiguration, we see the kingdom of God on display. In the valley, we see the kingdom of Satan on display. In the transfiguration, we see a glorified son, but in the valley, we see a demonized son. In the transfiguration, we see a father who delights in his son, and in the valley, we see a father who is horrified by his son. There is no greater contrast between the top and the bottom of that mountain. But yet, to drive this point home again, by faith, we can connect the two. Turn with me to Romans chapter 5, or just listen briefly as I read Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. It says this, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by what? Faith. into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Paul is not talking about something that will only happen to you when you die. He's saying in the here and now, when life gets difficult, you have access by faith. By faith. It doesn't mean that your present suffering goes away. What it means is that you yourself are also being transported to the eternal glory at the same time. Paul says this again in Ephesians 3, 11 and 12. He says, Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. My brother, my sister, when you go through these difficulties and these challenges, Are you reminded that the eternal glory, the power of the kingdom, is available at your disposal if you will just enter in by faith? A faith that connects eternal glory and present suffering. Secondly, a faith that acknowledges our limits. Let me clarify. When I say faith, I am not talking about a perfect faith. None of us here has a perfect faith. We will all suffer doubt from time to time. Maybe you'll wrestle with doubt your whole life. The father in this passage literally says, Lord, I believe, but help my what? Unbelief. And I would suspect that everyone in this room can attest to that, that even in their strongest times of faith, it is still mixed with even a little bit of unbelief. But the father's unbelief did not keep Jesus from healing his son. Jesus did not say, I'll wait until the unbelief is over. He answered the call. Because my brethren, it is not the power of your faith, it is the object of your faith. If you are trusting and depending on the all-powerful Son of God and not in yourself, He will display His power. So be free. Be free to acknowledge your limits. Do not feel like you have to put on airs and a false pretense and walk around like you've got it all figured out. You're nothing better than the disciples who spent most of their time arguing instead of healing. Acknowledge your limit. Acknowledge your imperfection. Acknowledge your doubt. Acknowledge your unbelief. But your faith, may it be focused on Christ. Thirdly, a faith that evidences itself in prayer. It's one thing to simply say, I have faith, but one way we show our faith is to come before God. To ask in prayer just simply means to ask, right? You have not, why? Because you ask not. It's not a puzzle, really, to figure out this text as to why they couldn't heal. They didn't do the most simple thing. They didn't ask in faith. When Jesus says believe, of course he's not saying believe anything you want. Believe Jesus, the one who reveals his divinity. But Jesus didn't say to them, the reason you couldn't cast them out is because I didn't yet give you the power of a faith healer. He said you didn't pray. because that's the connection. That's the way you get the power from the top to come down to the bottom. Prayer connects it. Prayer brings us up to glory, and prayer brings glory down to earth. Jesus said in Matthew 21, whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. James 5.15 says, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. It's amazing how, in today's evangelical subculture, we think it's people who have the gift of healing, when James tells us it's the prayer of faith. It isn't residing in one particular person. You can have all the miracles to your name, but if you don't have faith, you're not pleasing the Lord. The prayer, I think, in Mark 9, verse 14 to 32, is when it says, they brought the boy to him. Just pause there for a moment. They brought the boy to him. You may not be able to relate to a father who's watching his child from early on convulse with demonic attacks. But you may have such an obstacle in your life. Maybe it is a person. who you're trying to minister to, you're trying to give them the truth about the gospel, the truth about the Christian life, and you're like, they're just not getting it, and I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and I continue to try to disciple them, to evangelize them, to maybe fill in the blank. But maybe the answer to this is you need to bring that person to Christ. Now you might say, well, that's what I'm trying to do by evangelizing. Yes, I get it, but maybe it's bringing them to Christ in prayer. I'm not saying you stop teaching. I'm not saying you stop evangelizing. I'm not saying you stop calling and pursuing. What I'm saying is, how much time do you and I give those things to prayer? Because that's where the power is. How many times I thought about certain people and I'm thinking if I just preached a little louder, if my sermon was a little more fluid, if I had spent more time, if I had gotten more things, if I had given this book instead of that book. And we worry ourselves because we're trusting ourselves. Bring these obstacles, bring these people, bring these situations to the Lord in prayer. They brought the boy to Him. Once they did that, it was in the hands of Christ. They didn't have to worry anymore. Oh, faithless generation, faithlessness is a lack of trust in God. And let me drive it home more and say this to all of you in this room, as well as those who are not here with us today, but who will listen to this sermon, make prayer a priority. That's not revolutionary, right? We all knew that. But if we're honest, do we prioritize prayer? Do we prioritize prayer to the degree that Christ prioritizes it? Your Lord and Savior, whom you're trusting with your eternity, who saved your soul, who you sing about, is telling you that prayer is a priority. But for many of us, we don't make it a priority. It's not lack of time. Right now, you might even be thinking of excuses. It's not lack of time. Some of us spend so much time on things that are good, maybe even theological. We read systematic theologies. We're online. We listen to podcasts, YouTube videos. We can tell you all that's wrong with this person. I can tell you what's wrong with this theologian, this movement. You're armed. You're ready to argue. Where's your prayer? You tell me all about the dangers that you perceive. You're on the defense. You're ready for people to argue with you so you can prove them wrong. But you have no offense. Who are you teaching? Who are you discipling? Are you praying? Are you doing the basic things? I tell you, the failure of the church is mostly due to not doing the basic things. Not because there's a threat out there somewhere and we need experts to rise up and spend all their God-given time on exposing the experts while they are prayerless people. I am convicted in just saying how much time I spend parsing through this thing and that thing when I should be taking it to the Lord in prayer. If it means to stop reading blogs and listening to podcasts and watching YouTube and going on social media, make time for what Christ says to make time for. If you can attend prayer meeting, attend prayer meeting. Stop making excuses for the things that God says are necessary for your life. Are you trying? Some, is it inconvenient? Yes, it could be inconvenient. But this is a matter of life and death. Some of us rely too much on our intellect and our strength. And you see a challenge to the kingdom, but how much do you pray about it? May the Lord make us a people of prayer, prayer that we depend upon God in faith. If you have no desire to pray, no desire to attend prayer meeting, no desire to make prayer a priority in your daily life or in your heart or in your home, then you need to get right with God. Come see me, come see a leader in the church and talk to them about this. This is dangerous territory. You can have all your eyes dotted in T's cross and you can know all the ins and outs of theology, but if you don't have a prayer, you are missing out on a basic thing in the Christian life and it needs to be repented of immediately. We are powerless because we are prayerless. The disciples were powerless because they were prayerless. We must renew our minds to prayer. And if we do that, it'll bring us to our last point, which is a faith that glorifies Jesus Christ. Larry Hurtado asked a question about disciples. The question they're trying to figure out in this passage is, can we have the power of Christ without the presence of Christ? And I think the answer is absolutely. The presence of Christ, I mean the physical presence, as He is up at the right hand of the throne of God, can we still access that power? By faith, we can. One more place to turn or you can listen as I wrap up from Hebrews chapter four, verse 14 to 16. Hebrews four says, since then, this is verse 14, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Do you get that? The writer of Hebrews says, find mercy and grace, through times of need. He's connecting the throne of God to everyday life. You want to access the power and the throne of God? By faith, He will help you in times of need. In times of need. In the valley, you have access to the top of the mountain. The glory and power of Christ's kingdom doesn't cease just because things are difficult. And so, brothers and sisters, the throne might seem far away. Might seem like it's somewhere in glory. That's where Christ is. He's not here right now when I go through this trial. But through the prayer of faith... here and now in the valley. Jesus said, I will be with you always, and he meant it. The same Jesus who was transfigured on the mountaintop is the Lord of the valley. You don't need to gain God's favor through your own power, because if you're a believer, God's favor already resides on you. But you have access to his power through the prayer of faith. May we use it well so that when he takes inventory of our lives, he will not say to us, oh, faithless generation, but he will say, well done, good and faithful servants. Let's pray. Well, Father, we come to you recognizing how far short we fall of this calling. Forgive us, Lord, for neglecting the things that are so basic for neglecting our faith, for neglecting prayer, for trying to do things in our own power, rather than simply taking them to you by faith, through prayer. I pray, Lord, that you would rekindle a fire in this church. Not only this church plant, but also Wayne, those of us who aren't here today, and even the church in America. as we really have put the discipline of prayer on the shelf. Renew us, Lord, to be people of prayer who depend on you, not only when we're in church, but when we're stuck in traffic, not only when we're with believers, but when we're in opposition with unbelievers. May we continually pray always Entering in taking advantage of the access that your son has purchased by his blood and forgive us when we don't do that May Christ be glorified Amen