Mark 9:14-32
“Notice what you notice.” WOW! A number of good items to report on today, including, for every one of us, our favorite Bible verse: Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (v. 24) “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” How often have I cried out like that in difficult times!! You, too…??
I’m having to find time in between sessions at this conference! So now I’ve tapped out some introductory thoughts and it’s 10:30 pm as I finish those thoughts. I hope they make sense!!
Mark’s introductory description is fascinating: 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. (vv. 14-15) I am sympathetic for the disciples. Jesus had Peter, James, and John with Him. The other 9+/- disciples were somewhere else, presumably nearby, unable to cast out this particular demon, even though they had had successes before when Jesus had sent them out. So now they are arguing with the scribes, presumably about Jesus and His power to heal and about their own relationship with Jesus. Then Jesus comes by and the crowd instantly moves to Him, deflating the disciples even more. Yes, disappointing for the disciples, but consider for a moment the level to which the crowd has elevated Jesus. Later, on Palm Sunday, they are almost ready to make Him king. These outsiders in Galilee might have felt that way, but at a lower level of emotion than the Jerusalem crowd. These Galilean expectations of a King were probably at a lower level than in Jerusalem. Still, they knew Jesus and loved to be near and with Him!!
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. (v. 25) Here we see something that we have not seen before. Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit and orders it to “never enter him again”. What a wonderful thought!! To have been burdened with this unclean spirit for all these years, and then to know that you have (or your son has) been healed of this affliction FOREVER! Never again!!! Awesome!! What a glorious God we serve! NEVER AGAIN! Folks, I know that we have some “never again” afflictions that can be healed. So, go back to the first paragraph: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” GLORY!!
Slava Bohu!