[Machine transcription]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear Ariel, when Jesus was baptized, God the Father spoke from heaven and said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And when you are baptized just now, when the Holy Spirit gives you the washing of rebirth
and renewal of the Holy Spirit and calls you to be his own child and welcomes you into
To his family as his daughter, he says the same thing to you, that you are his daughter
with whom he is well pleased.
And this is true for all the baptized.
We belong to God.
He is our true Father, and we are his true children, and his name, and his kingdom, and
His love, and His deliverance, and His kindness all belong to us. His life, and His light,
and His peace, which I think we need most of all. His peace.
If you could excuse me for just a couple of minutes, I want to tell a personal story.
about 20 years and one day ago, which is a day that all of us remember, or if you’re
old enough, you remember, when we heard first about the attacks in New York and the Pentagon.
I was at the seminary. I was walking with a friend of mine, Pastor Ketchemeyer. He was
just Brian back then. He wasn’t ordained yet. We were walking to the student center
before chapel to get a cup of coffee and play a game of foosball. And as we were going,
I very distinctly remember the first time sorting out that something was wrong because
a friend of ours, a classmate, John was his name, was walking out of the student center
there at the seminary, and he was wearing a white shirt and a dark tie, and I was making
fun of him for looking like a Mormon missionary. And he didn’t respond like he normally would
of and laughed, but he was just stone-faced serious and he looked at us and said, go look
at the TV. So we went to the commons and it was eerily quiet. Normally the place was bustling,
but it was dead quiet except for the TV. Everybody was standing around, students and professors
alike watching the TV and there was the tower that was burning and we watched with horror
as the second plane struck the second tower, and our stomachs dropped. We didn’t know
what to think. There was a gasp, a murmur, a silence again. We were watching all of these
things unfold and trying to sort them out. What’s going on? What is this? Is this an
attack? We don’t understand. Why is this happening? And then the bell rang for chapel.
I never had thought about the bell that much before.
I never really had thought, well, should I go to church when the bell rings?
You just heard it ring, and you made your way over to the chapel, but I thought about
it that day.
Should we go?
Should we stay here?
We’ve got to watch what’s going on.
Should we stay?
And I think all of us didn’t know if we should stay or if we should go until one of
our professors said, gentlemen, time for church.
And we all marched over in solemn procession into the chapel.
I don’t remember what the service was or what the readings were, what the sermon was
about, but I remember this, that after the service was over, Dr. Wynthe, who was president
of the seminary at that point, stood up to address us, stood up in the lectern.
And he said to all of us who were there preparing to be pastors, he said, gentlemen, this is
why you are here, so that you can bear the light of Christ into a world that is full
of darkness, so that you can bring the life of Jesus into a culture that is obsessed with
death, so that you can bring the forgiveness of sins into a world that is enslaved.”
He said, we’ll have classes today.
And we’ll carry on with the work that we’re doing, learning the Greek and the Hebrew and
church history and how to preach and all this other stuff.
We’ll carry on because in the midst of disaster, the Lord wants to come and bless.
us. I think that we can think the same thing whenever we hear on Sunday morning the bells
ringing. There’s a lot of things in the world. There’s a lot of darkness. There’s a lot
of disaster. There’s a lot of trouble. There’s a lot of scary things happening. We thought
that last year was tough. It just seems like it can keep getting tougher, and we wonder
sometimes how things can keep going wrong and falling apart,
but it seems like it can.
But that’s what we’re doing here.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s why we are gathered.
It’s why the Lord has us here.
To shed on you his light in the midst of a dark world.
To make you light bearers in the midst of darkness.
us, to give you life in the midst of death, to give you freedom in the midst of slavery,
to give you hope in the midst of despair, to give you His promise in the midst of so
much uncertainty, and to deliver you, to deliver you from all evil. That’s why we gather.
Jesus, this morning, doesn’t seem to want to let us off the hook of thinking about the
devil and the demons and the problem of evil. Last week, we heard of Jesus rescuing the
daughter of the Syrophoenician woman who was troubled with a demon, and today we hear of
Jesus rescuing the son of a man who is also troubled with a demon.
When we want to make evil into an abstraction and darkness into something far off, the Lord
reminds us that evil has a name. In fact, evil has lots of names, the devil and all
the demons, and these are, in fact, real. We have real opponents. We have real enemies.
We have a real fight on our hands. And the disciples, it seems, who were not with Jesus
couldn’t handle it. If they couldn’t handle it, how can we? I want to try to answer that
question. But here’s the context. Mark chapter 9 begins with Jesus taking Peter, James, and
John up onto the mountain where He is transfigured. Jesus glows. His face and His clothes as white
as any launderer could launder them, Mark tells us. His face is like the sun. And Peter and
James and John, who had fallen asleep, I guess it was a long walk up the mountain, but Peter
is always falling asleep, and they wake up and they see Jesus, and He’s there, and He’s
talking with Moses and Elijah. In fact, Luke tells us that He’s talking about their exodus,
their departure. Jesus is talking with Moses and Elijah about His impending death. And then
when Peter wakes up and he sees this happening, he says, Lord, we should make some tabernacles.
We could just settle in right here. We’ll make a home for you, and one for Moses and
one for Elijah. And when Peter says that, the cloud, the glory, overshadows the mountain
like the glory of God in the Old Testament. And the voice of God again speaks, just like
He spoke at the baptism of Jesus. This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.
And Peter and James and John fall on their faces, face to the ground, and Jesus comes
and touches them, and they look up, and Jesus is alone. In fact, it’s beautiful. The text
says the cloud is gone, Moses is gone, Elijah is gone, and the text says they saw Jesus
only.
Well, they’re on their way back down the mountain and it seems like there was a bit of a controversy
that had broken out with the nine disciples who were not with Jesus on the mountain. There’s
a man with a demon, a man with a son who had a demon, who had come to find Jesus, heard
that Jesus could help and Jesus could deliver. They come to find Jesus and they can’t find
him, he can only find the disciples. So he says to the disciples, can you help me? And
they, I bet, look at each other and say, let’s give it a shot. Why not? We saw Jesus do this
before and He gave us authority to cast out demons when He sent us out the last time.
Why not? So they say, we can help take care of you. And so they begin to try to exercise
this demon, to try to drive the demon out of this boy, but they can’t. They fail. Time
after time, they fail. You imagine that each of them probably had a shot, and each of them
fails, and they’re going around and around, and it’s becoming quite a spectacle because
the scribes, who had already challenged Jesus, remember they had said, show us a sign, and
He refused. The scribes are looking for something to catch Jesus. They see this whole thing
happening and they, they gather around like sharks. Ah, we’ve got you. And they start
fighting with the disciples. Why can’t you do it? What’s wrong? Where’s Jesus anyways?
ways? Why have you left us? What is all this kingdom of God stuff? It doesn’t seem like
it’s working. We think that Jesus is a false Messiah. Why don’t you reject Him and leave
Him? He obviously hasn’t given you power and other such things, and the disciples are
fighting with the scribes and a crowd. In fact, the text tells us a very large crowd
has gathered around to watch this fight between the nine disciples and the scribes, and this
is the situation that Jesus finds when He comes off of the mountain.
You have to wonder, I mean, just, I wonder about Peter and James and John, how excited
they were to tell the other disciples about what happened on the mountain, and they come
into this sort of fight. And Jesus goes, the text indicates that He goes and He doesn’t
ask the crowd what’s going on. He doesn’t even ask His disciples what’s going on. He
goes and He asks the scribes, what are you arguing with them about? But the scribes don’t
answer. The man who has the son comes and explains the situation, Lord, I brought my
Son. To you, I found the disciples, they are unable to heal him, to deliver him. And Jesus
responds in about as exasperated moment as I think we ever find our Lord Jesus being
exasperated. He says to them, you see, in verse 19,
O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with
you? Bring him to me. So they bring the boy to Jesus, and the spirit who had
taken possession of this boy, sees Jesus there and goes into a fit. It convulsed the boy.
He fell on the ground. He rolled about. He was foaming at the mouth. And as he’s on the
ground writhing, Jesus says to the father, how long has this been happening to him? And
the father says, from childhood, and not only this, but that this demon has often cast the
boy into the fire or into the water to try to destroy him.
And then the Father says, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
Now that but if you can really strikes Jesus.
Jesus says to him, if you can, are you questioning that?
Are you wondering if I can?
man? Do you doubt? All things are possible to one who believes.
And then the Father cries out. Now, dear saints, I think that this prayer of the Father that
we’re about to hear is probably the reason why the Holy Spirit has preserved this text
for us. There’s a lot of miracles that Jesus performed. There’s a lot of people that
Jesus rescued from demons. There’s a lot of things that Mark could have written about,
but I think that this is the uniqueness of this particular account, and it is for us.
I believe, he says, help thou my unbelief. And we immediately resonate with these words
from the Father because we too believe, and we too doubt. We too know that Jesus is the
Savior, who’s risen from the dead for our salvation, but we too have a weak faith that
has trouble clinging to that in the midst of all sorts of temptation and trouble. We
with the Father have the same prayer. Lord, I believe. Yes, I believe. Oh, help my unbelief.
Help my weak faith. Help my doubts.
Now, a question comes up here in the text, and this oftentimes comes up, and the question
is, is, pastor, after all, is doubting a sin? Is it a sin to doubt? The answer is it depends
on who you’re doubting. If you’re doubting yourself and your ability to save yourself,
that doubting is not only not a sin, that’s a good work. If you doubt your own strength,
if you doubt your own conviction, if you doubt yourself, great. But if you doubt God and
His Word, that is in fact a sin. Doubting is to the first commandment what rage is to
the fifth commandment, or lust to the sixth, or jealousy to the ninth. You can’t hardly
help it from arising in your own heart. It just sort of shows up, this sort of question
about the truth of what the Lord says or who the Lord is. But that does not make it right.
We fight those things. It’s popular in theology today. It’s kind of one of the marks of the
post-modern theology is that it’s supposed to be great to doubt. This used to be a youth
ministry thing, too. You’ve got to encourage people to doubt and to question. Now, it’s
good to question, but doubt is a different thing because the Lord’s promises are sure.
The Lord’s words are unbreakable. Jesus does not lie. He is completely dependable,
and faith is trusting in those words that they’re true. Now, we are all battling against
the doubt, which is why we pray, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And He does. He strengthens
our faith with His Word. He strengthens our heart by His Spirit. And He delivers us.
There’s a beautiful conclusion to the text, but we should get rid of the demon first.
So He’s, I believe. Help my unbelief. And the crowd runs together. The crowd’s running
everywhere in this text. They run to Jesus. They run over here. They’re running all around.
The crowd runs over there and Jesus sees the crowd running, so He rebukes the unclean spirit.
You mutant, deaf spirit, I command you, come out of Him. Never in Him again. And He cries
out. He convulses terribly. He comes out and the boy’s still like a corpse and everyone
says he’s dead, but Jesus reaches down with His hand. He picks him up and He hands him
back to the⦠He lifts him up and he arose and he’s alive and delivered.
word, Jesus goes into the house with the disciples and they ask Him, Lord, why couldn’t we do
it? Maybe they were still embarrassed about the whole deal. How come that demon was so
stubborn? How come we couldn’t get rid of it? And Jesus says, this kind cannot be driven
out by anything but prayer. In other words, you couldn’t do anything. Your only hope
was to ask me to help. When the only hope is prayer, that means our only hope is God.
When our only hope is prayer, that means only Jesus can do it. But Jesus can do it. There’s
a grace-alone, faith-alone kind of thing in this text, and that is that we cannot by our
own works deliver ourselves. We cannot by our own efforts set ourselves free from sin
or death or the devil. We cannot manage it ourselves. Our only hope is in Christ who
delivers us, who rescues us, and who sets us free.
There’s an old part of the baptismal rite. Luther wrote it. We should use it. It says,
Depart thou unclean spirit and make way for the Holy Spirit. Every baptism is an exorcism,
and in fact more than that. Every absolution is an exorcism. Every sermon is an exorcism.
Every time you read the Lord’s Word, you are sending the devil away as the Holy Spirit
it comes who sets us free and brings us the light of Christ.
So dear saints, be of good cheer.
Do not be afraid.
The devil roars, seeking whom he can devour.
Death is creeping up on each one of us.
sin is lurking at the door, but Jesus is with you. He is the Deliverer. He is the Savior.
He is God incarnate, crucified and raised to bring light and life. And He is yours,
and you are his now and always. Amen. The peace of God which passes all that your
mind can do, keep and preserve you in the true faith to life everlasting. Amen.
