THE BOY WITH A “MUTE SPIRIT”
Mark 9:14-29

INTRO:
A preacher I heard of and his wife decided to let their three-year-old son record the message for their new digital home answering machine. The rehearsals went smoothly: “Mommy and Daddy can’t come to the phone right now. If you’ll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
Then came the actual recording, the father pressed the record button and their son said sweetly, "Mommy and Daddy can’t come to the phone right now. If you’ll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they’ll get back to you as soon as Jesus comes.”

I guess you could call that a mixed message.

For our text today I would like you to open your Bibles to the 9th chapter of the gospel of Mark. Our thoughts will come from a fairly lengthy section of scripture, Mark 9:14-29, but I will read just a couple of verses to get us started.
Mark 9:14-18 – “14. And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15. Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16. And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?'' 17. Then one from the multitude answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18. "And wherever he seizes him, he throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not.''”

The situation that is described in this text is truly a tragic situation. The boy of whom the text speaks apparently was unable to speak or hear and had some of the symptoms of epilepsy. The synoptic gospels attribute the boys tragic situation to what Jesus calls an “unclean spirit” in verse 9:25 of the NKJV. Other versions use “foul spirit”, “evil spirit”, “dumb spirit” or “impure spirit”.

Notice how the father describes the boy’s condition in a very graphic way. It would be difficult for anyone not to have the deepest of sympathy for the boy and for his caring father. Sadder yet is the fact that the boy was an innocent victim. This was not a disease he contracted from careless contact with another. It was not a congenital condition in the true sense of the word. The demon simply chose him and “possessed” him! This illustrates to us that the Devil does not care who is hurt by his evil, and he certainly did not care that this situation was horrible for all concerned. This is a great personal and family tragedy. There are some things in this narrative which begin at verse 14 that we should observe.

I. Note there is first an apparent failure and then there are critics.
A. In the verses we read and particularly in the last part of Mark 9:18 – “So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not.”
1. The interesting thing to me here is that back in chapter 6 and at verse 7 we read this; Mark 6:7 – “And He called the twelve to Him, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.” The Lord had given the 12 power over the demonic kingdom.
2. On this occasion, for some reason what ever that may be, there was a failure. They could not cast out this “mute spirit” as it is called.
3. The question comes to my mind on reading this, what has happened? Something is seriously wrong here. We will address that question in a bit.
B. Now when they failed the critics abounded, disputing with the disciples in their desire to find fault. That is what is going on as we started to read at Mark 9:14 – “14. And when He came to the disciples, Jesus, remember, was up in the mountain, the mountain of the transfiguration with Peter, James and John. Now they have come down and when he came to His disciples He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15. Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16. And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?” The word here, the NKJV translated as “discussing” is defined also as “question, dispute, enquire, and reason”. The reason they were discussing was the disciples had failed in their attempts to cast out this mute spirit.
1. Here then are the scribes, critics, with the little band of disciples. We know that is the way it is in life. When disciples of Jesus Christ fail folks, the critics are always ready to pounce on them.
2. Why? Well the failure of a disciple is a reflection on him who is the master of those disciples. Here then is a group of disciples who had failed to cast out the mute spirit. I am sure the scribes have been looking for an occasion, an opportunity to criticize or discredit Jesus and his disciples. They see this as a great opportunity and they are going to make the most of it. Why is that? Because they see the disciples as helpless in this situation.
3. This is why we, as disciples of Christ, need to be very careful about the way we live our lives. We need to be careful about our words; we need to be careful about our deeds. There are those out there who are just waiting for us to make a mistake. That mistake, whatever it is that we make, rest assured they will attribute to some failing in faith or perhaps some failing in religion, and even some failing in Jesus Christ. We need to be so careful.

II. The father here has a request of Jesus.
A. Let’s read several more verses together beginning in verse 17. Mark 9:17-20 – “17. Then one from the multitude answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18. "And wherever he seizes him, he throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not.'' 19. He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.'' 20. Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.” “...I brought you my son...”
1. The whole attitude of the father of the boy is most illuminating. Originally he had come seeking for Jesus himself. Since Jesus was on the mountain top he had to deal with the disciples who were not with Jesus and his experience with them was discouraging because the disciples were unable to meet this boy’s needs. His faith was badly shaken.
2. In the verses we read as we go on, we discover that this boy’s condition began when he was a small child. In verse 20 we are told when they brought him unto Jesus the spirit convulsed him and he fell to the ground.
3. In verse 19 we read the words of our Lord; "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Jesus had just come from the mountain and had faced the tremendous task that lay ahead of him. Now he had come back down to find his nearest followers, his own chosen men, beaten and baffled and helpless and ineffective. There is a lesson here in how He handles this. When we cannot deal with the ultimate situation, the thing to do is to deal with the situation which at the moment confronts us. “Bring him to Me.”
B. Then in Mark 9:21,22 – “21. So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?'' And he said, "From childhood. 22. "And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
1. In talking about this boy’s condition the father talks about his falling down, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and becoming rigid (some translations use “withers away” or “wastes away”). The Greek word here is often used to describe something such as a plant, which upon drying, withers and becomes stiff. It is a terrible situation that this boy has had for years. I have no doubt this father had suffered long and much for his child.
2. Then the father says; “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” In these words we hear the sound of doubt - the sound of uncertainty.
3. Is it possible that the fact that the disciples could not cast out the demon, raise in the father’s mind—doubt, and uncertainty? Perhaps even in the ability of the Lord to do so? “But if you can...” In those words and in the context there is the sound of “I’m not at all sure you can now that I have seen that your disciples couldn’t”. There is also the fact that this man indicates that he and his son have both suffered as the result of this. “But if you can... help us”. If you can do anything for us. It is not the power of Jesus that is defective here. It is defectiveness—of faith.
4. It can happen that people receive less than they hoped for from some congregation or from some servant of the church. When that happens they ought to press beyond that to the Master, beyond the servant of Christ to Christ himself. The congregation may at times disappoint us, and God's servants on earth may disappoint us, but when we make our way, face to face with Jesus Christ, He never disappoints us.

III. Jesus next speaks of possibilities.
A. We go on and read a little further Mark 9:23,24 – “23. Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.'' 24. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” “...if you can believe...”
1. Perhaps there was in this man some question about whether or not the Lord could cast out the mute spirit.
2. Then, face to face with Jesus, suddenly his faith blazed up again. "I believe," he cried. "If there is still some discouragement in me, still some doubts, take them away and fill me with an unquestioning faith."
3. Let us notice how the Lord answers him. The man had said “If you can...” Jesus responds with almost the same words; "If you can believe...”
4. As we said it is not a defectiveness of the power of Jesus, it is a problem of faith!
B. The Lords talks about the possibility; "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.''
1. You know folks when we come to a problem with doubts and with fears, come to a problem not believing that anything can be done about it, we set ourselves on the course of failure. We fail from the very beginning. "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.''
2. When we come to a grave situation with hopelessness we are defeated before we begin. To approach anything in the spirit of hopelessness is to make it hopeless; to approach anything in the spirit of faith is to make it a possibility.
3. The entire backdrop of this event is a backdrop of faithlessness. Mark 9:19 – “He answered him and said, "O faithless generation...,” The Lord looks around Him and here are His apostles and they can not cast out the mute spirit. Here is this father saying “If you can...”. Then there are the scribes who are critical of the apostles’ inability cast out this mute spirit. Everywhere you look in this incident there is unbelief.
4. I’m going to say something that may sound strange; faith must act in faith to accomplish the seemingly impossible. "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.''
C. Then comes what are some of the most memorable words in this entire occasion; "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Belief in the presence of unbelief?
1. Within the infancy of faith there often remains doubt and fear and questions. Without doubt this man’s faith is an infant faith at best.
2. Before we criticize him, however, we need to consider which one of us has not experienced just this phenomenon? We believe, we are believers – and yet there remains some of the experiences of humanity which argue against faith, which argue against – the possibilities.
3. We recognize that, but we must act in that infant faith as this man did ... we do not just become immobile, we act. Then we pray in that infant faith for an even stronger and greater faith as did this man... "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” He recognized that his faith needed shoring up. We will find times in our life when we recognize this condition in ourselves and we pray to God for the shoring up of that faith. I am going to act, I am going to approach, I am going to do... but I’m doing all this against the logic of the world, against human reason and human experience. And we remember what Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 – “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Faith, even if it is small, has great power.

IV. There is a wonderfully happy ending to our text today.
A. We continue reading at verse 25; Mark 9:25-27 – “25. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, "You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more!'' 26. Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead.'' 27. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.” “...come out of him, and enter no more into him...”
1. Once again, Jesus commands the demonic kingdom as Lord!
2. He commands the mute spirit to come out of the boy and He forbids him to reenter the boy.
3. Jesus is recognized by the demons of the demonic kingdom. They know who He is, they know He is deity, they know they are subject to Him and this demon has no choice but to obey. However, he would not leave the boy without one last damaging effort - so damaging that the people said, “He is dead”. In thinking on this I realize that this demon had no choice but to obey the command of Jesus and that is so different from you and me. Jesus can command but we have the opportunity, the privilege of choosing whether we obey or not. The evil spirit did not. The evil spirit had to obey but it would do its destructive best to hurt this boy one more time in the process and it did this so dramatically that the people seeing the boy came to the conclusion “he is dead.”
B. But with faith and the presence of Jesus all things are possible.
1. “Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.”
2. Precious, precious words. This concerned and loving father saw in that action the most amazing thing. The thing he had no doubt prayed for, no telling how long. “took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose”.
3. I want for you to see that faith is always uplifting – and faith is always triumphant, but that faith must be well placed ... it must be placed in the Lord.
4. As far as the father is concerned the incident is over. We are not told that he expresses gratitude and we have no knowledge of him or the boy from this point on. That is the way Mark’s gospel is. Mark uses an economy of words and his is a gospel of action. Nothing elaborate in what he says, just facts.

V. Yet the situation is not quite over for the apostles.
A. The apostles are concerned about this. They are wondering, how did we fail? Let’s read further Mark 9:28,29 - “28. And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast him out?'' 29. So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” Now turn with me to Matthew 17:19-21 – “19. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast him out?'' 20. So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21. "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” “Why could we not cast him out?”
1. You know Lord, you gave us power for this and in our previous experiences we have been able to cast out evil spirits, but something has happened and we were not able to do it this time. Why could we not do it?
2. What was the problem?
B. Jesus identifies two problems they had – the first problem was faithlessness and the second problem prayerlessness. In effect he said to them, "You don't live close enough to God." They had been equipped with power, but it needed prayer to maintain it.
1. Faith and prayer are the “activators” of power ... in the absence of faith and prayer their connection with their power had become “faulty”.
2. In the absence of prayer, faith will grow weak ... and as our faith grows weak we are going to find problems in our discipleship.
3. That is what has happened here. There is a problem in their discipleship. That problem is caused by faithlessness and prayerlessness.
4. In this situation we know that there was a happy father. We know that there were disappointed disciples. We know that even the Lord seems to express disappointment when He refers to this faithless generation.

CONCLUSION: Folks, we cannot face the great challenges of our lives whatever they may be in the absence of prayer and faith. We can not succeed through our challenges. When we take away faith and prayer there is a disconnect with our power source. That is what happened to the apostles, there was a disconnect.

Unless we maintain this connection with God we lose two things no matter what gift God may have granted us.

We lose vitality. We lose that living power, that something which makes whatever gift God has granted us great. Then the gift becomes a performance instead of an offering to God. What should be a vital, living body becomes a beautiful corpse.

We lose humility. What should be used for God's glory we begin to use for our own, and the virtue goes out of it. What should have been used to set God before men is used to set ourselves before them, and the breath of loveliness is gone.

Notice what is said at 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” We have been endowed because we are children of God with a spirit of power ... but we can not draw on that power in the absence of prayer and faith. Don’t let there be a disconnect in our lives. That disconnect will bring into our Christian life... questions, and problems and difficulties. Be prayerful, be faithful because only in these things are we able to access the power with which we have been endowed.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference sermon - Cecil A. Hutson, 02 December 2007