Sermon Tone Analysis
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1-11-09
FINDING FAITH FOR A NEW YEAR
MARK 9:14-29
NEED: PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD.
PROPOSITION: HAVING PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD MUST BE
A PRIORITY AS WE ENTER THE NEW YEAR.
OBJECTIVE: TO LEAD GOD'S PEOPLE TO GREATER FAITH
THROUGH PRAYER AND SERVICE.
INTRODUCTION:
This passage speaks to me because I can so easily identify with the parties in the passage.
Most of us have had the
experience of standing beside that broken hearted father and feeling so helpless before an impossible situation.
This
father had a son, who had severe spiritual and physical problems, and the problems had been a part of his life from
his earliest childhood and all of his attempts to help his son had failed.
In a somewhat desperate move, he had
brought his child to Jesus, only to find Jesus was not present, and to have the sad experience of the disciples of
Jesus not being able to help his boy.
He was at his wits end.
Haven't you been there?
He was in a condition described
by one poet as having “his wings of faith broken”.
Whatever faith he had in the past, it is now utterly shattered.
It is also easy for me to identify with the disciples.
They had experienced a severe, public, embarrassing failure.
They
had known the excitement of exorcising demons on numerous occasions, but on this day, they failed.
The bitter taste
of failure and the sense of shame were heavy upon them.
How many times in life I have walked away from some
situation with that bitter taste of failure in my mouth and the burden of failure upon my shoulders!
Haven't you been
there?
However, the thing that really makes the passage a challenge is seeing the central figure in the incident.
The central
figure is not the boy, nor his dad, nor the failing disciples, but the Lord Jesus who has just descended from the Mount
of Transfiguration.
There may be failure all around, but Jesus is no failure.
He is standing in the passage to become
the friend and helper of all of those who have failed.
As we stand on the threshold of a new year, I feel the need for my faith to be strengthened.
I know that my successes
and failures in 2009 will be determined more by my faith in God than anything else in my life.
I want to learn what I can
learn about finding faith for a New Year.
Let us look at this passage together, open our hearts to the one that stands
in the center of the passage, and allow God to move us up to a new plateau of faith as we move in to a treacherous
New Year.
I. OUR FAILURES MAY REVEAL OUR LACK OF FAITH.
Failure is the first thing that stands out in the passage.
When Jesus approaches the crowd at the foot of the Mount of
Transfiguration, He sees the crowd.
It is obvious that an intense discussion, even a debate, is going on between his
disciples and some of the religious leaders.
There can be seen standing off to the side, while this intense debate is
going on, a stooped shoulder, brokenhearted man, with a troubled youngster standing at his side.
Everything in the
passage has the smell of failure.
I know that smell.
You know that smell.
1.
Failure is painful.
Can you imagine the pain experienced by that group of disciples, when they were not able to help this father with his
troubled child?
They had known on many occasions the joy of seeing faces lit up with hope and freedom through their
exorcisms.
They had gone through the same forms that they had used before, but this time they did not work.
This
had prompted some accusatory words from their critics who stood by.
So, they were enduring the pain of failure.
And the father knows the same kind of pain.
In fact, failure is all he has known as it relates to his troubled child.
Even
though it is not indicated in the text, knowing what we know about parents and life, I'm confident he had exhausted
every possibility of finding help for his child.
Bringing his child to the disciples of Jesus was a last desperate act on the
part of this man.
And then he was shattered when these disciples of Jesus were not able to deliver his child.
This
leaves the man without any hope for his troubled son, he thinks.
However, such pain does not have to be wasted!
It may be the pain that we have experienced in our failure can lead
us to another level of faith in our lives.
It did in the lives of those who were involved in this story.
2. Failure is revealing.
Why was the boy not delivered?
Why was the demonic power in the boy superior to the religious exercises of the
disciples?
Fortunately, we are not left to speculation at this point.
When Jesus heard the details of the situation, His
response was immediate: "Oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you?
How long shall I put up with you?
Bring the boy to me."
To whom did Jesus address these stern words?
They were addressed at least in part to the
father.
The father was approaching him as though he was as helpless to do anything as anyone else.
Jesus identified
the father as being a part of a generation that was characterized not by its faith in God, but by its convictions what
God could not do.
It is an unbelieving generation.
An unbelieving generation is a generation that has refused to
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