Mark 9:24

Mark 9:24

The transfiguration marks, so it seems, a crisis in our blessed Lord's history. It was a great out-shining of the glory of God in the sacred Humanity, permitted alike for the strengthening of the Son for His bitter passion, and for the more confirmation of the staggering faith of the holy Apostles as they witnessed the descent of their Master low down into the valley of His unfathomable humiliation. Henceforth His eye seems ever to be fixed on the cross. Many people have seen Raphael's famous picture of the Transfiguration. It is a striking contrast and absolutely necessary if we would really grasp the meaning of the miracle. The lesson of the contrast is:

I. "Seek ye My face." Cultivate the presence of Jesus Christ; realise that any conversation, any pleasure, any companionship, any business where He cannot be called, tempts Him to leave the soul; that a life lived without Him must end in darkness and in shame. Realise on the other hand, that wherever our lot may be cast, in poverty, in sickness, in loneliness, it matters not where, it is well, so only in meekness we cling to Him.

II. As you think of our Lord descending from the height of glory to this scene of sadness and sorrow, see a picture of His love. This demoniac boy, what was he but a type of the sin-stricken world? These vain attempts alike of the Jewish Church and of the Apostles not yet gifted with the Holy Ghost, how it all tells us of the thousand efforts made, now by pious Jews, now by those outside the covenant of Promise, to heal the plague of a fallen world, yet was it all in vain. So He, the Eternal, left the Holy Mount, clad Himself in the robe of flesh, and all that He might expel from our souls the evil spirit who had robbed God of His creature, man.

III. See the power of faith: "All things are possible to him that believeth." The father cried, "If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." The reason why miracles are not wrought today is, not because Christ has failed in power, but because wehave failed in faith, the faith as a grain of mustard seed is lacking.

IV. See the power of self purification. "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

T. Birkett Dover, The Ministry of Mercy,p. 175.

If these words express a real state of mind and who that knows his own heart can doubt for a moment that they do? it is evident that belief and unbelief can co-exist at the same time; that unbelief is not at once eradicated because we say "I believe;" that belief is not unreal, not hollow, because it is sadly lacerated, and sometimes as it would seem almost interpenetrated, with the poison of unbelief.

I. When the father of the stricken child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief," He knew what he meant. He meant this: "Lord, I do believe that Thou canst heal my child. How it can be, I know not; but everything tells me that Thou canst aid me. I do believe, though I hardly know why. Give me clearer knowledge. Help my unbelief. But meanwhile heal my son. I know that Thou canst do that." We need healing. Do we know that we need it? If we do, the doctrine of the Trinity is not far from our hearts, however perplexing it may be to our intellects. If we do not know it, our Lord Himself, though He were again present on the earth, could not prove to us that He is one with the Father and the Comforter.

II. Men believed to be inspired have by all people been regarded with peculiar veneration. The veneration has often been paid to an inspiration which certainly did not come from the spirit of good. But our temptation is to disbelieve inspiration altogether, as a present, operative reality; to regard men as left to themselves, as the authors of their own good and their own evil; to deny a Divine presence; to regard God as a Being historically past or indefinitely future; as One who did speak to the Jews, and will hereafter speak to us, but leaves us now to pass unassisted through a probation which is to fit us for knowing Him in a different state of existence. He who believes in a Holy Ghost sees mankind under a different aspect. They are either grieving or obeying that Divine Spirit. Their evil is rebellion. Their good is God's. It is possible to say in folly, "There is no God" no Spirit. It is also possible to say and to feel, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." God revealed Himself gradually to the world. He reveals Himself gradually to us. We pray that His work may go on in our hearts; that no prejudice, or sin, or indolence, or insincerity of ours may thwart Him. We believe that the doctrine of three Persons in one God, so far from being an abysmal mystery which it may be right to accept but impossible to make practical, is the one thing which it is most needful for us all to know. "Lord, we believe; help Thou our unbelief."

H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,p. 61.

Take these words:

I. As the voice of one seeking salvation. Now, if one ask salvation for another, or for himself, Christ demands faith, and in demanding, helps faith to exist and act. "Lord I believe." How do I believe? It is the Lord who, by the secret power of His Holy Spirit, enables me to believe at all. And yet, what we are conscious of, when we first believe, is not of that Divine touch of the quickening Spirit, but of the action of our own souls, taking hold upon Him, according to His words, as our only and all-sufficient Helper and Healer, and putting our entire trust in Him. "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."

II. As the voice of the Christian in some anguish of spirit. Grant that the first lessons of faith have been learned, and the elements of new life and hope have been planted in the soul. It is seldom that men understand the real use and value of faith, or the real strength and mischief of unbelief, until they have fallen into some distress, or wrestled with some great sorrow. Adversity or discouragement comes, and words will not support us then. We are alone with a heavy grief, or involved in something that, of all things, we wanted to avoid and shrink from, or face to face with what we know not how to bear. We toss on the sea and the wind is contrary, and where is our faith? Ah! it is with a struggle then that we believe, and we quickly add, "Lord, help mine unbelief."

III. As the words of the believer in view of duty, or of some holy privilege. (1) Say of duty first. You have some lowly work to do for the Lord on whom you wait. There are trials about very lowly work. At times you have your temptations. Your motives become complicated because you have lost your simplicity of faith and purpose and your singleness of eye looking at your Master's hand and countenance. Then make haste to the Saviour and pray unto Him. "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." (2) It may be, you advance to some holy privilege of grace, say the Lord's table. Go with your faint heart, your feeble faith, and your emptiness and helplessness, to the fulness of Jesus Christ, and you will not fare worst at His table. And when you say, "Lord Jesus, I do believe," then add in a breath, "Help Thou mine unbelief."

IV. As the voice of the whole Church on earth anxious for the salvation of her children. She has a constant struggle to maintain the holy faith, and overcome the doubts and incredulities that are springing up within her pale. The mediæval missionary, the Reformer, the Puritan, and the Covenanter, had none of that dapper orthodoxy which now-a-days casts its measuring line over all. He fought his doubts and gathered strength, and while he had a faith that gave courage to his heart and gravity to his character and heroism to his life, on that very account he felt that he must judge himself rather than other men, and that he must cry for himself in the battle of life, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." I should have more hope for the cause of truth now if we saw the same type of brave and humble Christian character returning, of course with the additional charm of the culture of the present age.

D. Fraser, Penny Pulpit(New Series), No. 444.

The Struggle and Victory of Faith.

We learn here:

I. That faith and unbelief are often found in the same heart.

II. That whenever faith and unbelief meet in an earnest heart there will be war.

III. We can foretell how the war will go, by the side which a man's heart takes.

IV. The way to be sure of the victory of faith is to call in the help of Christ.

J. Ker, Sermons,2nd series, p. 1.

References: Mark 9:24. R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons,vol. ii., p. 229; G. C. Bell, Church of England Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 17; M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical,p. 195; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xviii., No. 1033; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 71; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 345; vol. vii., p. 165; vol. ix., p. 181; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life,p. 343.Mark 9:29. W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles,vol. ii., p. 83.Mark 9:30. H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 202; W. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth,p. 272.Mark 9:33. G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Mar thorough College,p. 19.