Help My Unbelief! (Mark 9:14-29) - a podcast by Don Shoemaker, Steve Williams, and Bob Wriedt
from 2023-06-04T16:30
Who needs Jesus' help?
This week's message is going to look at a passage from Mark 9 where Jesus is confronted by a desperate father whose son is in obvious need of saving from a demon. It's a tragic and frightening picture of the oppression that can occur from demons. We'll talk about some of the questions this raises for us today, and how we can understand this passage in light of the cross.
But it turns out the son isn’t the only one who needs help.
As events unfold, it turns out the father's faith needs strengthening ("I believe. Help my unbelief!" is his famous prayer). The crowd's fickleness needs correction. And the disciples' self-reliance requires reorientation.
Let's reflect on this passage together and think about some of the many, beautiful ways that Jesus saves us.
In Christ,
Pastor Bob
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 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.” 19 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.” 20 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. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 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.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 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.” 26 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.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
- Mark 9:14-29
Further episodes of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach
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