Traveling Companions

Traveling Companions
Mark: Who is this Man?
Mark 9:14-37
October 13, 2024 

Whether you realize it or not, most of you have embarked on a journey, with potential dangers and glory.  That is your walk of faith.  John Bunyan captured this journey creatively in his famous book Pilgrims Progress.  The main character in the book, named Christian, had an important travelling companion that helped him and gave him great company along the way. Anyone remember his name?  It’s faithful.  

Today, I want to remind you that you are on a similar journey with some pitfalls seen and some unseen, and you need the right travelling companions to help you along the way.

Mark 9:14-29  - 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. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 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.” 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.” 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. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 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.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 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.” 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.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” 

Main Idea: On our journey through this life, we need to keep in close contact with three important companions: faith, prayer and humility.   

Our first traveling companion is... 

I: Appropriately Placed Faith.

We put our faith in all kinds of people, places and things that so often let us down. 

Definition of “faith”: Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

Mark 9:19-24 - 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.” 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. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 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.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

A. The Children of Israel, of all people should be a faith-filled people. Yet Jesus calls a group of religious Jews a “faithless generation.”
B. Spiritual warfare is real and underestimated in our generation.  Listen again to the severity of this from Mark’s account: And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
C. This child in our text has been dealing with this condition his whole life.  How did this happen?  Perhaps the family opened up some doors that shouldn’t have been opened?
D. Whatever the case, Jesus’ response to him was an interesting one: But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
E. In other words, if the father had faith, he could intervene on his son’s behalf…
F. The father’s response sounds a but like how I think a lot of us feel....

Main Idea: On our journey through this life, we need to keep in close contact with three important companions: faith, prayer and humility.  

Our next traveling companion is..

II: Dependance on Prayer.

Sticking with John Bunyan, the author of the Pilgrim’s Progress – he had the following to say about prayer:

Before you enter into prayer, ask you soul these questions: To what end, O my soul, are you retired into this place? Art you not come to discourse the Lord in prayer? Is he present, will he hear you? Is he merciful; will he help you? Is your business slight; is it not concerning the welfare of your soul? What words will you use to move him to compassion?  To make your preparation complete, consider that you are “but dust and ashes,” and he the great God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “that clothes himself with light, as with a garment;” that you are a vile sinner, he a holy God; that you are but a poor crawling worm, he the Omnipotent Creator.  In all your prayers forget not to thank the Lord for his mercies.  When you pray, rather let your heart be without words, than your words without a heart.  Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.  -John Bunyan

Mark 9:25-29 - 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.” 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.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

A. Jesus does the miraculous. Again.
B. But the disciples weren’t able to this time, and they couldn’t figure out why.
C. Mark 6:7 - And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
D. So you can perhaps see why the disciples didn’t understand that they weren’t successful casting out this demon. But something had happened in the disciples – there was a growing sin of self-sufficiency- they were relying on their own strength.
• Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
• 1 Chronicles 16:11 - Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
• Jeremiah 17:5 - Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
E. Lots of warnings that the disciples had apparently forgotten.  The disciple’s inability to cast out the demon was a symptom of a bigger problem.  Pride.
 
Main Idea: On our journey through this life, we need to keep in close contact with three important companions: faith, prayer and humility.  

As we complete our traveling preparation, the last thing we need to bring along with us is...

III: Posture of Humility.

One more quote from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress:

“But we will come again to this Valley of Humiliation.  It is the best and most fruitful piece of ground in all these parts.  It is fat ground, and consisteth much in meadows; and if a man was to come here in the summer-time as we do now, if he knew not anything before thereof, and if he also delighted himself in the sight of his eyes, he might see that that would be delightful to him.  Behold how green this valley is, also how beautiful with lilies.  I have also known many laboring men that have got good estates in this Valley of Humilation. (For God resisteth the proud, and gives more grace to the humble.)  For, indeed, it is a very fruitful soil, and doth bring forth by handfuls.  Some also have wished that the next way to their Father’s house were here, that they might be troubled no more with either hills or mountains to go over; but the way is the way, and there’s an end.

Now as they were going along and talking, they espied a boy feeding his father’s sheep.  The boy was in very mean clothes, but of a very fresh and well-favored countenance; and as he sat by himself, he sang,

“He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it, or much:
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.
Fullness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage;
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age.

Then said the guide, Do you hear him?  I will dare to say that this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of that herb called heart’s-ease in his bosom than he that is clad in silk and velvet; but we will proceed in our discourse."

Perhaps it is faith that leads one to a knowledge of his humble state and dependance on God, and humility that fuels his prayers. The disciples still had some lessons to learn…

Mark 9:30-37 - They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

A. The disciples still don’t get what Jesus is doing – they want a King and His Kingdom to be immediately on earth.
B. Jesus tells them again that He will be killed and will rise again.  They didn’t get the part about rising again. And they didn’t want to ask Him about it, instead, they shift gears to a selfish conversation about who will be the greatest.
C. The disciples are reeling from their inability to cast out the demon and the resulting humiliation, and they begin to think again of who would be greatest… This is what pride does – it keeps us from learning the valuable lessons that come from a humiliation.
D. But even in our arrogance, Jesus is gentle and patient.

Mark 9:35-37 - And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Main Idea: On our journey through this life, we need to keep in close contact with three important companions: faith, prayer and humility.  

Challenge:

God has called us to a high calling.  He has given us the Holy Spirit and His power to successfully navigate our lives.  But with success comes the danger of pride.  On our journey we must remember to bring along our faith, be a people of prayer and humility.

John Stott once said: “Pride is your greatest enemy, humility is your greatest friend.”

And C.S. Lewis adds: “Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began” 

Read – Reflect – Respond in Prayer – Rest in Philippians 2:1-11