And if you have a Bible that we invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 17 this morning We're in verses 14 through 20 now I know some of you are visiting the last couple weeks what we have seen is the mount of transfiguration That is the high mountain upon which Jesus took Peter James and John and his his internal glory the glory of God in the flesh Was unveiled and revealed his face shown like the sun and all its brilliance and his clothes became white than any human could even bleach It was an amazing thing for Peter and James and John to see now side by side here as as all three writers who recount this Matthew Mark and Luke all put these passages side by side We have quite the juxtaposition in the valley below that is on the mountain the divine majesty was revealed in Jesus This morning we'll see in the valley human misery is revealed on the mountain the voice of the Father commands us to hear The son that is here in obey to listen to the son in the valley will see that well actually demons here in obey But it's his disciples who haven't been paying attention Haven't been learning their lessons and haven't been submitting to his will so What do we learn here of the inability and incompetence and unfaithfulness of disciples of Jesus? Let me invite you to consider that from Matthew chapter 17 beginning at verse 14 And when they came to the crowd a band came up to him and kneeling before him said Lord have mercy on my son For he has seizures and he suffers terribly For often he falls into the fire and often into the water And I brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him and Jesus answered oh faithless and twisted Generation how long am I to be with you how long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me and Jesus reviewed the demon and it came out of him and the boy was healed instantly Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said why could we not cast it out? He said to them because of your little faith For truly I say to you if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there And it will move and nothing will be impossible for you Amen, this is God's word making right in our hearts.
Let's pray together father What we know not teach us and what we are not make us and what we have not give to us By your grace in Jesus name we ask amen Well as I said last week when verse 13 we noted that John the Baptist is the Elijah who is to come that is they came off the mountain they had a discussion about Moses and Elijah chiefly Elijah and And Jesus as well John the Baptist is actually the new and better Elijah today What we see is that Jesus is the new and better Moses that is Jesus is like Moses yet better than Moses Why do I say that? Well, we see this because just as Moses in Exodus 32 came off the mountain having been with God there and had the reflected glory of God shining from his face so much that he had to veil himself in the presence of people so Jesus comes off this mountain having been with God on the mountain and where the glory of God wasn't reflected in the face But was actually unveiled in the face of Jesus Moses reflected the glory of God Jesus is the very radiance himself of the glory of God and when Moses came off that mountain notice this connection in Exodus 32 he came off that mountain and he encountered immediately the unbelief and evil hearts of Israel and even his own brother Aaron for While he was gone what did they do they created the golden calf and trusted in it not trusting the Lord and Jesus comes immediately off This mountain and he encounters the unbelief and evil hearts of Israel even in his own disciples trusting not in the Lord but in themselves And so we have this boy brought before the Lord the big question here in the story is not is he gonna be healed The question is really why were the disciples unable to heal him? It's a story about their inability the inability of disciples of Jesus to do anything without God and therefore to do anything apart from faith in God and so let me invite you to consider the story in three parts in verses 14 to 16 we see the human misery and the need for for healing mercy but the impotence of the disciples and then in 17 to 18 Jesus rebukes his disciples and For faithfulness and twistedness, but then demonstrates his own ability as he heals the boy And then in 19 to 20 Jesus then teaches his disciples in us about a poor faith's inability But a small faith's ability. Well, let me have you think about these things first We're in verses 14 to 16 We see human misery and the need for divine mercy and the impotence of the disciples verse 14 when they came to the crowd a man came Up to him and kneeling before him said Lord have mercy on my son for he has seizures and he suffers terribly for often He falls into the fire and often into the water So on the Mount of Transfiguration the heavenly Father delights to declare Jesus to be his son his beloved with him He is well pleased and then immediately in the valley a despairing father brings his suffering son He has only saw his his only child is the gospel of Luke will tell us seeking relief from misery Miseries in which he has seizures verse 15 often translated.
He was epileptic the word there What literally means a moon struck because the ancient world thought of this condition as a kind of lunacy From which the the Latin Luna means moon the Greek word has derived from the moon goddess Celine and follow the ancient a mistaken belief that this so-called goddess used the moon's phases to strike down her victims But the actual condition he has appears to be epileptic right he has terrible seizures They cause him it says to fall and convulses mark tells us even foaming at the mouth like epileptics And it causes him to fall into the fire probably you can imagine the home cooking fire Or it causes him to fall into the water probably the sister and outside or in the village there both of these dangerous Things that could bring death and so you can imagine the horrible ordeal this was for both the boy and his loving parents And worse than that Jesus shows us that the boy is afflicted indeed with a demon the demonic has brought about these self-destructive behaviors So here we have a passage a passage like this and it describes physical and spiritual evil and of course we can imagine the associated mental and emotional Anxiety and sorrows it certainly invites the question. Why does this happen? That is to say why human suffering why Some have objected to Christianity putting it starkly that if God exists and God is all powerful that he must be uncaring Because otherwise he wouldn't permit human suffering or others will say if he does exist and he's good in caring then he must not be all powerful So he can't stop Human suffering or others will say he just doesn't exist at all and it's foolish to believe in him What is the passage revealed to us about these questions? Well notice that human misery is real That's that's a good place to start human misery is real it brings physical and mental and emotional and spiritual trouble And there's no hope in pretending it isn't real as in fact some religions do their answer to life's suffering Things is to escape suffering by denying the existence of it or or Learning not to care About it treat it like it isn't real or it doesn't matter and then you'll escape the effects some teach But reality is a punch in the gut Misery does exist and it's a universal human experience And it matters as does the reason we suffer it and what hope we have to deal with it The Bible teaches that we live in a fallen world and that the world doesn't work the way it's supposed to Because of human rebellion against our Creator right misery flows from original sin ever since Satan rebelled and enticed Adam and Eve to rebel there's been alienation alienation between God a man between man and man between man and The world around us man in nature and and that's our lot in life from which we need to be redeemed And so the Bible says the children of Adam well We are all liable to all the miseries of this life to death itself into the pains of hell forever as our catechism puts it That is the justice due to us if we get the wrath we deserve for our rebellion for our treason It's misery and so there is a God who made the universe and everything in it and he is all powerful and he is all good And he does care and yet we learn in the first chapters of the Bible he imposed thorns and thistles disease and eventually death Just as he warned us he would if Adam rebelled and then of course the Bible teaches that God and his love and mercy by his power Will one day fully and finally restore all things in the new heavens and new earth because Christ rescues us from sin and Promises a full redemption from all misery But we don't live in that world yet.
We live in this one where the whole creation groans and we ourselves groan In the passage shows us that we fall in frail children of dust feeble as frail cannot fix ourselves We cannot fix the problem of sin and the problem of misery this father told Jesus verse 16 I brought my son to your disciples and they could not heal him they were unable as we are We are unable to set things right and make ourselves well Truly well everlastingly well Now isn't it true that Jesus had previously Many months before in the gospels in Matthew chapter 10 verse 1 he had given his disciples the 12 Authority over unclean spirits to cast them out heal every disease and every affliction in fact in that chapter chapter 10 verse 8 He told them to go heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers and cast out demons He had told them and they had gone and they had done so but now these disciples Presumably the nine who hadn't been up on the mountain with Jesus, but the other nine of the 12 they have encountered a situation where they are Impedant Why were they unable? Well notice the second thing here notice the rebuke of Jesus for their unfurried faithlessness and twistedness and they demonstrated his own ability Jesus answers to them. Oh faithless and twisted generation. How long am I to be with you?
How long am I to bear with you? Now he indicts that generation it says so who's he indicting? I mean some have suggested because the father brought the boy and commented on the disciples inability that Jesus is Rebuking the father here others say well no he's rebuking the scribes and the crowd the other gospels Tell us today they'd all gathered up and we're discussing and debating with the disciples these things some say no No, it's it's all of Israel and some say he's indicting the whole world in that generation Generation certainly the use of generation suggests more than just one or even a few but clearly here in Matthew His own disciples are included as the example before him of the rest They could not heal this boy and immediately Jesus says oh faithless and twisted generation In other words, he's calling them faithless as later he'll mention their need for true genuine faith He calls them faithless or unfaithful disloyal and he also calls them twisted or perverse or crooked unless we think that the disciples were really special people and Unlike the rest of us. No, they weren't called to be his disciples because they were of stellar qualification They were called by his grace and he will qualify them certainly just as he will equip them for the work They're called to do just as he does for any of us But they were not by nature in themselves trusting in God and believing in Jesus and that lack of trust flowed from a willfully depraved heart Jesus says a Twisted heart they did not believe because they deliberately refused to believe from a crooked heart to believe And so Jesus then indicts them and then he asks them a well rhetorical question.
I mean he He says how long how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? They have it seems nearly Exhausted his patience for dwelling with them and putting up with them and that too is reminiscent of God's dealings with Moses and Israel In Numbers chapter 14 We learned that the people grumbled against Moses and Aaron in rebellion against the Lord as they refused to trust the Lord to bring them Into the promised land they said no we want to go back to Egypt I mean cruel bondage and slavery in Egypt. That's where we want to go We want to go back.
We don't want what God has promised for us No, and so what happened is number 14 tells us that the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel And the Lord said to Moses how long Will this people despise me and how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs? I have done among them well here in Matthew 17 to there's grumbling and complaining Distrust mark tells us in mark 9 the great crowd gathers grad arguing with the disciples Jesus here not not to well He isn't the Moses here with whom the people raised the complaint the disciples are they complain against the disciples For not healing and doing the wonder Jesus is instead the Lord of glory who appeared to Moses and Israel and spoke to them as Jesus appears to them as the Lord of glory and speaks likewise how long how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? How long in the language of the Old Testament will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs?
I've done among them and that is what we have been seeing these last months I mean had not Jesus walked on water in front of these disciples he had had he not fed the 5,000 using just a few loaves and fish and actually they aided him in the distribution How do you not miraculously fed the 4,000 likewise? Yes, he had had he not made them you to speak the crippled healthy the lame to walk in the blind to see He had done all those signs Matthew 14 and following they saw all of that, but they did not trust God to heal this boy. How long then is the lament of Jesus and his own answer is a bit longer Well at least until you bring the boy to me and I heal him and well as verses 22 and 23 say at least as long as it's gonna Take for well these people to kill me I'm gonna I'm gonna stay here. I'm gonna bear with these people I'll put up with all of this nonsense.
We might say and go to that cross He is then we might say long Suffering we see the patience of Jesus bearing along with the crowd the scribes even his own faithless and twisted disciples And what they could not do Jesus did he commands them into verse 17 bring him here and then verse 18 Jesus were you the demon he came out of him The boy was healed instantly Matthew cuts to the chase if you want the longer version look at mark 9 But Jesus understands here that the boy is under the influence of a demon I don't imagine these were backwards simplistic kicks so imagine demons under every kind of illness or disease We've made that clear the Bible distinguishes these things But in this case they didn't imagine a demon Jesus pointedly rebuked one And that's not because the presence of illness always means the presence of evil spirit beings But in this case it was the presence of a demon and Jesus demonstrates he has all authority over it And of course he does he's God incarnate. He is the God who was transfigured on the mountaintop he can do anything he wants to do And so he has mercy on the boy and his family relieves him of his suffering rescues him for spiritual forces of evil So that taken together the mountain and the valley show us that God exists and in fact the fullness of God dwells bodily in Jesus And he's all powerful able to cast out spiritual forces of darkness with a word of command able to heal a broken body with a word of command And he is the God man who is not only capable but caring compassionate he heals So then we'll have to look elsewhere for an answer for the problem of evil elsewhere than the notion That God isn't in charge doesn't exist or isn't loving In fact if we pause it and picking up on paraphrasing something Tim Keller Once wrote might it might have gotten it elsewhere in fact if we pause it a God So big he's in charge of all things and able to fix all things And then we're angry with that God because he doesn't or hasn't yet Then we have to say that because he is so big big enough to be angry with it's possible He has purposes for the continued existence of sin and misery Purpose is so big even so good good purposes that they are beyond our ability to understand them all And as Joseph explained to his brothers the brothers that sold him into slavery and misery He said to them you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good for the saving of many lives What we can definitely say is that God has promised that all who trust in his son Well, there is a day coming when we shall be healed of all that Ails us the healing here is a for taste of our own for as Revelation says we shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore The Sun shall not strike us nor any scorching heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd And he will guide us to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear From our eyes So Jesus is capable his disciples are incapable. He's competent. They're not and so he gets up to the reason They ask a question verse 19 privately.
Why couldn't we cast them out? And his answer is to speak of faith and here he teaches us about what I what I'm calling a poor face inability and yet a small Face ability that is to say well notice the language verse 20 He said to them because of your little faith for truly I say to you if you have faith like a grain of a mustard seed You will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you So first he says you couldn't cast it out because you are of little faith and then he tells them if you have Little faith faith is small is the grain of a mustard seed nothing would be impossible for you You have to ask the question what gives? Well, what gives is this when he says that they have little faith he returns to a form of a word He used earlier to rebuke Peter when Peter at his command walked on water They saw Jesus walking on water Peter said Jesus command me to come to you Jesus did and it obedience to the command Peter walked on water That is until he took his eyes off of Jesus and put his eyes on the wind and the waves and began to sink And cried out save me and Jesus saved him and then Jesus called him O you of little faith That is whereas he began in trusting Jesus and walked on water He didn't finish trusting in Jesus But got overwhelmed by looking at his circumstances and put his hope in the wrong place So that what Jesus is saying here and calling them little faith is not that they have a small quantity of genuine faith in Jesus But they have we might say a poor quality of faith or we might say this they have faith in the wrong object of faith And it's illustrated by the father himself It's in Mark's gospel, but he comes to Jesus asking for help But he comes doubting for he says if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us and Jesus says to him If you can he repeats the guy's words back at him if you can do anything And then he says all things are possible for one who believes you see the father doubted He came to Jesus for help shortly, but he doubted that Jesus was able to help and Jesus rebuked him And then immediately it says the father of the child cried out and said I believe Lord help my unbelief Here to Matthew 17 the disciples were disbelieving they may have been trusting in themselves after all they tried to heal the boy But trust himself is misplaced trust what they had not done is trust in Jesus and the evidence for that was their prayerlessness They had to look to Jesus ask Jesus nor believe Jesus to heal the boy And we know they were prayerless which is an expression of faithlessness for in Mark's gospel Jesus closes by saying this kind cannot be driven out by anything But prayer so that Matthew emphasizes faith they're Well, they're little faith or wrong kind of faith mark emphasizes prayerlessness And is there any difference will not much because prayer is simply faith Breathing in other words, you can't do it only God can do it in answer to prayer which demonstrates faith But they had the faith to pray in that circumstance and so by way of well with the time remaining application This is really the trouble of the church regarding all its works and all its efforts We plow ahead in ministry as disciples of Jesus and we do it thinking It's based on merit or human effort human wisdom human giftedness human eloquence and then we find our ministry is ineffective And it's because we have not labored in faith That is we haven't turned away from trusting in our own efforts And we haven't cast ourselves wholly on the Lord to do it only the Lord himself can do and this is a constant danger for disciples of Jesus It's a danger for parents raising children danger for Sunday school teachers instructing young minds for a danger for deacons seeking to express sympathy Danger for elders who shepherd souls or read scripture in public or teach the word and for preachers who expos it the scripture and herald the good news It's a danger to be doing the work But not trusting the Lord whose work it is And it's a danger because the work of ministry is not effective in the way that the Roman Catholic Church Mistakately assumes the sacraments are effective follow me on this for a moment that is neither baptism nor the Lord's Supper are Effective in the Latin phrase ex opera operato that is fancy phrase the sacraments are not effective by the working of the work Or by the mere doing of the activity as if the results simply follow the work Baptism and the Lord's Supper are effective not by human agency by the agency But by the agency of the Holy Spirit who makes them effective and the grace held out to us needs to be received by the recipient Not on the skin or by the instrument of the mouth But by the instrument of faith by the work of the spirit without faith We don't receive the grace in the sacrament well likewise in all the activities of Christian ministry preaching and teaching and laboring Fellowshiping and loving and all the things that we do missions and evangelism What matters most of all is not do we have our ducks in a row our lessons tightly organized or our organizational structures properly synchronized? The question is always is the Holy Spirit at work and are we a helpless?
needy Desperate people looking to him to do what only he can do. This is why you don't need a brilliant pastor You don't have one by the way You need a desperate pastor who means on Jesus We don't we've none of us needs to be an omnipotent disciple with an answer for everything and it gets to get it done We need to be poor and needy disciples hungering and thirsting for what only God can give and for what only God can do So Rubber meets the road. Do you have somebody to love? Of course you do Do you find it hard to love them?
You need God to help you love them Do you have something to say you need God? Well to give you the courage to say it, but you also need God to drive it home to the heart of the hero Do you want healing from injury or illness? Well, we need to seek it from God and of course we'll need his help to endure if his answer at least for now is not yet Are we harassed by spiritual forces of darkness? It is Jesus in his presence and power who rescues all who look to him Friends the reason the disciples could not heal this boy is because they were confident in themselves and not in Jesus And so he rebutes their faithlessness the poor quality or the misdirection or the wrong object of their faith Because he goes on to say that you just need a very small or little faith truth faith and You'll see accomplished what seems impossible that expression to move mountains was proverbial for what was humanly impossible No human could pick up a mountain and move it anywhere So it is that many things in life would appear to be impossible for boys and girls men or women however competent We may be but with God all things are possible and if our faith in him is small So what Jesus says it's no obstacle Because we don't put our faith in having great faith We put our faith in a great God and a small faith even a tiny faith in a great God is all that's needed So Redeemer, what is it you want to see Jesus do you?
Would we have him reach inside the very heart of people and take out a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh? He is the only one who can do that. I'm just talking in the air But God by his word the spirit taking that word can do it Would we have him convince some discouraged disciple that his love for them is a never stopping never giving up Unbreaking always and forever love he can do that we can Would we have him here our prayers? There's no incantation to do the trick God does hear the prayers offered in Jesus Would we haven't built the church the very thing Jesus said he came to do we don't build churches Jesus builds churches So the point is It isn't to be powerful in prayer to be but to be what you are weak humble needy a beggar hungry and thirsty desperate looking away from yourself To God it's the legalist who says if you believe much God will do much and the reason God isn't doing much is that you're not doing much toward God It's the legalist who's fixed on the ability of man to maximize the ability of God or the limitation of man to limit God But God isn't our gene in a bottle and there is no preferred incantation And we can't manipulate him and we aren't righteous enough to deserve something from him and we certainly don't name it and claim it Jesus however is much more gracious.
He delights to help the helpless He loves to bless his beloved children come to him in frank honesty like this father and say I believe Lord Help my unbelief and if it be your will Lord to do this or to do that I Believe Lord help my unbelief may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Let's pray