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A Lesson in Underestimating and Overestimating Spiritual Power

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Sermon on Mark 9:14-27 for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, September 12, 2021.

 

Dear conquerors through Christ,

The college football season started last week.  Often, the very powerful school teams will schedule early season games with “lesser” opponents.  For instance, this weekend Wisconsin plays Eastern Michigan University, a smaller school with a not so powerful football program.  Usually you see final scores of 50-3 or something similar.  However, it can and does happen once in a while that in such cases the powerful team underestimates the other team; and sometimes “upsets” happen.  The powerful, big team isn’t totally focused on the game and game plan; they may not be giving the 100% effort needed to execute and win.  And as the “lesser” opponent “sticks with them” they gain confidence and play harder, and every now and then pull out a win over the heavy favorite.

Today’s lessons remind us that Christians are constantly in a contest or battle with an opponent, an enemy.  He is also our God’s enemy, Satan / the Devil.  Sometimes we UNDERESTIMATE this enemy’s power.  We can also OVERESTIMATE our own power as we battle against him.  And where we really fail in the battle for our souls is in often UNDERESTIMATING Jesus’ power.  It’s good now and then to have …

A Lesson In Overestimating and Underestimating Spiritual Power

    From our Gospel lesson, let’s first look at The Devil’s Power.  He is powerful.  He is a fallen angel, once created with great power and, since he and all angels created by God are spirits, not bound by time and space as we are.  Other angels rebelled against God in the days or weeks or months following the creation of the world, the human race, and them.  From the time of that rebellion God put Satan and the other rebels out of his presence and forever away from his goodness, to endure the never-ending pain and agony of sin’s result – hell.  Yet, until Judgment Day they are allowed some access to our world.  And they use for harmful purposes what power they still have.  We see it put to use for evil purposes in the boy in our lesson.  A “demon” or evil spirit would actually get into the boy and control his body – causing him to be unable to speak and along with that causing his body to go into convulsions.

His father apparently had heard of and maybe had actually heard Jesus teach and had maybe seen a miracle or two.  He believed Jesus could help his son.  So, he brought his son to some of Jesus’ disciples (Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John on a little trip we’ll mention later).  As he later told Jesus, he asked the disciples to cast the spirit out of his son, no doubt assuming that since they were associated with Jesus they could.  And in fact, they had done it on previous occasions.  In Mark 6 (a lesson we had several weeks ago) Jesus sent the disciples in pairs to nearby towns and villages to announce the coming of the Savior to those people.  In verse 7 Mark records that “he gave them authority over the unclean spirits”.  Verse 13 says, “They preached that people should repent.  They also drove out many demons”.  When the father came to them with the request to cast out this spirit, we can almost hear those disciples think and say, “Sure, we can do that for you and your son; we’ve done it before.”  How they attempted to do this we don’t know.  Did one of them take charge and deal with the spirit?  Did he say what Jesus said later, “I command you to come out of him”?  And if the first disciple failed did others try, one by one?  Or did they speak as a group?  Whatever they may have tried, they failed.  The spirit still controlled the boy.  Why?  Later, in private Jesus explained why when they asked him why they failed. (This is not part of the reading).  Jesus told them, “This kind cannot be driven out, except by prayer.”  We’ll come back to that.

But is seems they UNDERESTIMATED this spirit’s power, perhaps because of earlier “successes” in driving out demons.  “We did it before, we can do it again.  After all, a demon is a demon,” may have been their thinking.  But notice as we conjecture what the disciples are thinking and saying that the pronouns “I” and “We” are dominant; and even in the question they asked of Jesus later in private, “Why were WE not able to drive it out?”  Usually tied to UNDERESTIMATING the Devil’s power is OVERESTIMATING our own spiritual power in the fight against him.

This seems to be Jesus’ condemnation of the disciples when he, Peter, James, and John arrive on the scene:  “O

unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you?  How long will I put up with you?”   As he would tell them later, they lost sight of who really has the power – Jesus.  They mistakenly had come to think that THEY had the power.

 

How often you and I UNDERESTIMATE Satan’s power and OVERESTIMATE our own!  Satan is no dummy!  I believe he changes his tactics to fit those he seeks to destroy.  Throughout the Old Testament times, in Jesus’ time, and for centuries after, most people still believed that there is a spiritual realm, that there is a God who is spirit, that the supernatural is real, and there is a devil and demons – fallen angels who fight against God and his will for people and the world.  And so, when a demon would take possession and control of a person’s body, it would accomplish the evil goal of throwing people into fear, dismay, and even lack of trust in God’s power and involvement in their lives.  See how it worked on the father of this boy!  See how it caused distrust and fighting between people – the disciples and the crowd and the Jewish teachers of the law!

HERE IS AN IMPORTANT POINT:  SATAN AND THE OTHER FALLEN ANGELS (DEMONS)

ARE NOT SOME NAUGHTY LITTLE BOYS WHO JUST LIKE TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN, AS HE

AND THEY ARE SOMETIMES PORTRAYED IN MOVIES OR OTHER SHOWS.  HE AND THEY

ARE PURE EVIL, FULL OF HATE, AND DESIRE ONLY TO HURT, HARM AND DESTROY YOU

AND EVERY OTHER HUMAN BEING, WITH THE GOAL OF LEADING YOU TO UNBELIEF

OF GOD’S PROMISES AND COMMANDS, RESULTING IN JOINING THEM IN HELL FOR

ETERNITY!

We don’t see what we might call “demon-possession” much in our culture; why?  Satan uses what works!  Ours is a culture that believes itself to be so smart and sophisticated.  We’ve “progressed” to the point of discarding the notion of the supernatural, the spiritual realm, God who is spirit, and angels and demons, and a devil.  Today, people read this lesson and conclude the boy just had epilepsy; no demon.  Even supposed “Christian Bible teachers” say that!  What you see is real, nothing else.

In cultures that downplay the spiritual and supernatural, like ours, Satan resorts to other powerful methods to try to pull people from God.  And physical pleasures seem to be at the top of the list.  His temptations to serve my body and myself are numerous and powerful.  They are sly and deceitful.  The temptation to despair of God’s help is also strong, as seen in the boy’s father: “If you can do anything, Jesus, …”.  Questioning the Son of God’s power and willingness to help!!

We underestimate Satan’s power and cunning … AND… we overestimate our spiritual power to fight him off.

We may think I’m spiritually strong enough to hang around these ungodly people and not have it affect me, my faith, and my future.  I’m spiritually strong enough to look at those lewd pictures once and not be drawn into constantly looking at them.  I’m spiritually strong enough to not have them affect my thinking and behavior.  Or it might be substances … I was once controlled by substances I put in my body, but I’ve overcome it now.  Maybe I’m strong enough to dabble with it again.  Or maybe we think we can deal well with difficult circumstances – health of self or loved one.  “I’m strong enough; I have my faith”.  Underestimating Satan’s power and cunning, and overestimating our own spiritual power most certainly results in spiritual failure – loss of trust in God’s promises and commands, sinful behaviors, despair of God’s love and power for us.

So, Jesus (with Peter, James and John) come upon this scene.  Reading the section before our lesson in Mark 9, we find that they had just been in the hills where Jesus was transfigured before them – his face shining light the sun and his clothes a dazzling white.  Israelite prophets Moses (1500 B.C.) and Elijah (800 B.C.) appeared with him from heaven, talking about the difficult sacrificial road ahead of Jesus.  It was a splendid display of Jesus’ divine glory and power.  So much so that Peter wanted to stay forever, correctly saying, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here,” but then babbling something about building some shelters there for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  But Jesus had to press on; he had an appointment with a cross and God’s judgment on sin in the near future. They come down from the hills, and they come to the scene in our reading; an argument between the other disciples, Jewish Bible-law experts, and a crowd that had gathered.  From the ordinary people gathered, including the boy’s father, it may have been more questioning of the disciples as to why they hadn’t been able to cast out the spirit.  The law experts, probably Pharisees, perhaps were mocking them in their failure.  This is what Jesus found when he came down from his glorious time in the hills.

Permit a brief excursion on that … a point made by a retired college professor in our Synod with whom about 50 of us Pastors would study for a day and a half once a year, usually in February for about 10 years, ending a couple years ago.  The Lord Jesus called him home to heaven back in March.  He was walking us through the Gospel of Mark, and had such neat insights.  Regarding Jesus coming down from his transfiguration to this chaos, he commented that this is how it often is for the Christian in this world; you spend an hour in the peaceful heights with Jesus as you worship with fellow believers; he takes us to the glories of heaven through his Word and Supper; and then out we go into the messy, sinful world.  He said, “That’s always a messy proposition.”

But now we see who truly has the power; we see Jesus’ Power.  Sadly, his power we often UNDERESTIMATE, too!  Listen again to the father of the demon-possessed boy.  “I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not… But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”   The failure of Jesus’ disciples had dealt a blow to this father’s belief/faith in Jesus.  Perhaps our failures to overcome Satan’s powerful and cunning temptations do the same to our faith in Jesus and his love and power for us.  And now Jesus comes to the rescue!

Jesus said “all things are possible for the one who believes”.  It’s important to understand that when he says this, he is not pointing to the man, nor to any of us.  He is pointing to himself.  The power of faith or believing is not in the believing; it is in the one in whom faith is placed, namely Jesus.  Something the disciples had forgotten.  But in the father there is still the spark of faith, which he admits.  However, he also understands that even growing in faith is not his to accomplish, but it is God’s task, “Help me overcome my unbelief!”

Jesus then powerfully accomplished what everyone there needed.  The evil spirit needed to be cast out, and it was, but not without a “scene”.  Permit another insight from that sainted professor I mentioned before.  With Jesus and the devil it’s always a confrontation and a “fight to the death”, if you will.  The moment the spirit recognized Jesus it fought; it through the boy into a convulsion.  A confrontation, as it always is between Jesus and the devil, and as it should be between us and the devil.  There is no discussion here; no attempt at compromise with the devil and evil.  Jesus just powerful says, “Get out!”  The spirit cannot resist the power of the Son of God!  But it does show its “true colors”.  The devil in addition to always being evil and hateful is always angry.  With a shriek and a final act of defiance it left the boy.  That needed to happen.  The boy needed to be freed from the grip of that spirit, and Jesus powerfully freed him!  The father needed his son “whole” again, and Jesus gave him his son back.  The father needed renewed trust in Jesus, and he was given it.  And the disciples?  Certainly, increased trust in Jesus as Messiah and Savior; but also a lesson to be held onto as in the not too distant future they would be Jesus’ representatives.  Jesus is and has the spiritual power needed by every person.  Later in private Jesus told them this kind of spirit can only be cast out by prayer.  Translation:  “You guys didn’t come to me for power; you relied on yourselves against this powerful enemy.  In the hour of battle, in temptation’s hour, COME TO ME, TALK TO ME,” Jesus implores us.  Hand in hand with talking to him is also letting him talk to us; listening to his promise of forgiveness and strength and also his perfect commands for our living as his warriors.

Here’s the bottom line of this lesson in underestimating and overestimating spiritual power:

  • Satan hates God and he hates you. He will viciously use every bit of power and his lies and deceit, working through our culture and people and our own sinful hearts – to accomplish your eternal ruin – to separate you from God and Christ now and forever!
  • Know WHO is more powerful than Satan; and that’s not you. It’s Jesus, who overcame his temptations and took what we deserve for yielding to them!
  • This is why it’s so important to daily connect with Jesus – listen to what he says in his Word. As we heard in the lesson from Ephesians 6 today, use it as the armor of God. In Jesus’ promise of forgiveness and life is the power, and in his commands for living is the strategy for overcoming the enemy!

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