Doing Ministry in the Valley > Mark 9:14-29

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In the Vatican Museum, there hangs the final painting of the great master painter, Raphael. It was incomplete at the time of his death in 1520, and later finished by his chief student. It is called “The Transfiguration.” One sixteenth century artist claimed that this was Raphael’s most beautiful and divine work. The upper half of the painting is focused on the extraordinary event we read of in Mark 9:1-8 – the glorious transformation of Christ. The scene is flooded with bright light and vivid color as Jesus is portrayed in His brilliant glory. But the lower half of the painting is a different scene. It is dark and full of shadows, and portrays men pointing fingers at each other with angry faces. The subject of the lower portion of that painting is the text we have just read. When Jesus took Peter and James and John up on the mountain with Him to witness His transfiguration, life did not stand still for the nine other disciples who were left at the base of the mountain. While the others were occupied with glorious things on the mountain top, these nine were left to handle the nitty-gritty of life in the valley.

Like them, we find ourselves today in the valley of real life and the hard matters of daily serving Jesus. Jesus has ascended to be with the Father in the fullness of His glory. We would love to be there instead of here. We would love to flee the needs and burdens of this life, but He has left us here. It is certainly true, that if Jesus wanted to, He could rapture us to glory the moment we are converted. But this He has NOT done, and so there must be some purpose for our remaining here. While we await our own ascendance to the heights of glory, we are left to sort out the matters of His church in a world full of human needs. So, the question is, “How?” How do we carry on life and ministry in the valley? We will be helped if we learn from the passage before us today, and our time in the valley will be of use for Christ and for His Kingdom purposes.

I. While We Are In the Valley, We Must Resist Distractions (v14-16)

A well-known saying that has been attributed to various sources goes, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” We become distracted by allowing things of lesser importance to crowd out the main thing. The motto of the Starbucks company says it well. For years, they have instilled into their personnel: “We are not in the coffee business serving people; we are in the people business serving coffee.” If coffee is of first importance to Starbucks, then the customer comes second. But they have dominated the market over the last decade by putting the customer first, and meeting the needs of the customer with their product. Now there are at least a dozen ways we could distort that idea and thereby do more harm than good to the work of the church in the valley. But what we can glean from it is that the main thing has to remain the main thing, and the main thing is people.

I have often joked that ministry would be a cakewalk if it weren’t for people. The irony is that if it weren’t for people, there’d be no need for ministry. The church is not in the ministry business serving people, we are in the people business, serving them with ministry. The disciples at the base of the mountain were presented with a person in need – a boy who was desperately afflicted by demonic possession. But when Jesus comes down from the mountain, He does not find their attentions focused on the boy and his situation, but rather they are on the verge of a street fight with the scribes. We aren’t told what the argument was about – Jesus asked in v16, “What are you discussing with them?” But we never get an answer. And we don’t need one. When there is a need such as the one they have been presented, the main thing is to act in the name and power of Christ to meet that need, and all other matters must become secondary.

Please don’t hear me saying that there is not a time and place for discussion, debate, even argument. Sometimes those things are necessary. We are admonished in the NT to defend the faith that has been passed down to us and to give a reason for the hope that is in us. We must hammer out sound doctrine and always seek to refine our convictions and practices to line them up with Scripture, and defend the integrity of the Christian faith against the attacks that come against it from inside and out. Every generation finds itself in the midst of an attack on doctrines that we hold precious. Today we are facing theological battles that must be fought – Open Theism, the New Perspective, the Federal Vision, just to name a few. You may have never heard of any of these things, and you probably don’t care to hear an explanation of them. Thank God there are scholars at work hammering out biblical arguments against these sneaky heresies. We must stand against these things and others. But, what will it matter if we are right about these thigns and know all the mysteries of the faith, yet do not live that faith out in the Kingdom work of ministering to those in need? Sound biblical doctrine is only sound when it changes the way you live and makes you love God and others more. If it doesn’t do that – its just cold, dead, orthodoxy. I had a professor who overheard some of the students debating about the best kind of leather you can get a Bible bound in. The professor interjected, “The best kind of leatheryou’re your Bible is shoe leather.”

When Jesus comes down and sees this argument taking place, you will notice that He did not take sides or lay blame. He says, in essence, “Why are you having this argument when there is work to be done?” The Bible teaches us that Jesus is coming again. We don’t know when. We must live as if He is returning today. And when He returns, will He find us splitting doctrinal hairs, dotting I’s and crossing T’s, while people are suffering around us – people who need the gospel and who need to be met with the compassion and power of God. The homeless person, the drug addict, the prostitute, the middle-class family who is having trouble paying their bills, the abused spouse, the battered child, the person who is contemplating whether or not to live or die – these people really don’t care if you are a Calvinist or an Arminian, or when you think the rapture is going to happen. I have a hard time believing they are concerned about what kind of music we sing or which version of the Bible we use. They have a need that only Christ can meet, and you may be the closest thing to Jesus they will ever meet. These people and their needs are NOT distractions – they are the main thing, and if we aren’t careful, we will let other things become a distraction that keeps the main thing from being the main thing.

II. While We Are In the Valley, We Must Represent Jesus (v17-19)

The desperate father’s words in this passage are an indictment against the disciples. “I brought YOU my son,” he says. He came, we don’t know how far, and we don’t know at what personal expense, but we know that the journey could not have been easy with a child afflicted so severely. But he came to see Jesus, the one whom he had heard may be able to help his son – another Gospel tells us, his ONLY son. But when he arrived, he did not find Jesus; he found the disciples. And so, he says, “I told Your disciples” to cast the demon out, “and they could not.”

Now, we must confess up front it was a tall order. The boy’s symptoms are similar to epilepsy: seizures, convulsions, foaming at the mouth, grinding his teeth, becoming rigid all over. In fact he may have had epilepsy, but it was no mere medical condition. It was brought on by a demonic spirit who also rendered the boy deaf and mute. But it should be remembered that in Mark 6:13, when Jesus sent out the disciples, they were able to cast out many demons and heal many sick people. This was not new ground for them to chart. They had done it before. But they could not do it this time.

Imagine for a moment the disappointment this father must have felt. He had brought his son to Jesus, but the followers of Jesus were unable to deliver. I suggest to you that many in our day find themselves drawn to Jesus, only to be disappointed by the inadequacy and powerlessness they find in us. They come into our churches hoping to find the power of God in the person of Christ, and instead they find you and me. And we are unable to meet their expectations. But in all this is an even greater lesson for the church – we are not here representing ourselves. We are here to represent Jesus! And we must be quick to tell them that where we are incapable, He is more than able.

Jesus says to the father, “Bring him to Me.” And He says to us, “Bring them to Me.” Do not think that our human effort and opinion will be sufficient to transform the lives of those who come seeking. We must do all we can to get them into the hands of the One who can help them. It will matter very little in the end that these individuals were impressed with us, or with our songs, or with the beauty of our sanctuary, if they do not encounter God in our midst. And they can if we will put aside pride and tradition, programs and speculations, prejudices and hypocrisy, and through our worship and ministry magnify Christ in all His power and glory. He is the One who can transform their lives, and it is Him whom we represent in all we do.

All of this really segues and overlaps a bit with the final point.

III. While We Are In the Valley, We Must Recognize Certain Limitations (v20-29)

It would really be awesome if, every time we were presented with a difficult challenge of church ministry, Jesus would come down in the flesh and handle it for us. That’s what He did here in the text. But He will not come down again in the flesh until He returns in glory, as He promised in Mark 8:38. But He has promised to work through us and empower us to serve Him while we remain here in the valley. But it is absolutely essential that we recognize that we are bound by certain limitations. We see two of those limitations here in the text.

A. We are limited by the measure of our faith (v21-27)

In a sense this is the theme of the entire passage. In verse 19, Jesus says, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?” The commentators go back and forth with the question of whom Jesus was addressing with this statement: Was he addressing the crowd, the scribes, the disciples, or the father? The answer is “Yes.” Each party is seen demonstrating a lack of faith to some greater or lesser degree in the passage. But if we would overcome this lack of faith and see the power of God manifested, we must have faith that exceeds three obstacles.

1. Faith That Overcomes Desperation (v21-22)

We have already mentioned the severity of this boy’s condition. Perhaps this is why the disciples were unable to help him. Perhaps they did not have enough faith that God could help such a desperate situation. On their own, they have not faced anything of this magnitude yet. The temptation is to say that this problem is so great that even God cannot fix it. That is a laughable proposition. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? When you stop to consider that He called this entire universe into being by the Word of His power, that He conquered even death itself, how small our problems begin to appear! And we must see those things for what they are – desperate circumstances, YES, but desperate for us, not for God. He has yet to encounter the problem too large for Himself to tackle. We must believe this as we bring Him the concerns of our hearts and lives.

2. Faith That Overcomes Doubt (v22-24)

It may seem offensive to suggest that the father did not have this overcoming kind of faith after all he went through to get his son to Jesus. That he had faith is not in question. The question is whether his doubts were greater than his faith. Three words in his statement in verse 22 give rise to the question. Those words are “If you can.” Contrast this with the words of the leper in Mark 1:40, who said to Jesus, “If You are willing, you can make me clean.” The difference is subtle but significant. Overcoming faith says, “If You will, You can.” Doubtful faith says, “If You can, You might.” Jesus’ response in v23 is translated various ways which lead to different understandings of it. But essentially Jesus repeats the father’s own words back to him: “If you can?” He is pointing out the weight of this man’s doubt which is hindering his faith. He is saying, “Now, about this ‘If you can,’ thing,” and then He gives the man a very precious promise. “All things are possible to him who believes.” In other words, a man who has an overcoming kind of faith will not put limits on what God in Christ can do.” There is no question about whether or not Jesus can. The question is do we believe He can? That will determine the measure of our faith. Does our faith overcome our doubt?

3. Faith that Overcomes Disappointment (v25-27)

Sometimes things don’t go exactly like we think they should. Our expectations are unmet, and we are left with disappointment. Sometimes things get worse instead of better. Such was the case here. When Jesus commanded the demon to leave the boy, he “became so much like a corpse that most of” the crowd “said, ‘He is dead.’” This was not the outcome anyone was expecting. But, overcoming faith looks disappointment in the face and says “God isn’t finished working yet.” The father might have been tempted to pick up the lifeless carcass of his only precious child and return home to begin planning a funeral. But he didn’t. And it is a good thing he didn’t. Because the next thing we read is that Jesus reached down and took the boy by the hand and raised him. Now we don’t know if the boy was actually dead, or just appeared to be dead, but the Greek word used here for raised is the same word used throughout the New Testament for “resurrection.” Whether Christ brought a dead child back to life, or if He merely brought him out of a catatonic state, the point is the same. If we cave in to disappointment too quickly, we may miss the greatest work that God has yet to do.

The disciples had been questioning what Jesus had meant when He spoke of raising from the dead. Here He shows them a picture. When that terrible Friday comes later and Jesus lays down His life on the cross and His lifeless cadaver is placed in the sealed tomb, will the disciples have enough faith to believe that this is not the end? Will they look confidently toward Sunday and believe that He will rise? Each of us are similarly faced with disappointment, but we must have that overcoming kind of faith that sees the empty tomb as a reminder that God is not finished yet.

If we have not this kind of overcoming faith, then we will be severely limited in what we are able to see God do in us, through us, and for us. We all have some measure of faith, but like the father in our text today, we must confess our need to be helped out of our unbelief, that we might embrace this kind of unlimited, overcoming faith. But there is another limitation that must be addressed in closing.

B. We are limited by the measure of our prayer (v28-29)

Why could the disciples not handle the situation on their own? Jesus said, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.” I know that some of the translations have the word fasting here, and in comparing to the other gospels, Jesus may have actually said that here. But the best Greek manuscripts we have of Mark do not contain reference to fasting. The point is that we must not attempt to do ministry in the valley in our own strength. We must recognize that only God can meet the needs presented to us, and we carry those needs to Him in prayer. James says it very succinctly – “You have not because you ask not.” A prayerless church will ever be a powerless church, for its lack of prayer betrays either a lack of faith or overconfidence in human ability, or both – and God can use neither. God will work through a people who believe in Him with unlimited and confident faith, who are unashamed to lay every matter before Him in earnest prayer.

During the nineteenth century, perhaps there was no greater preacher than Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and no greater church than London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle where he pastored. So well-known was this church and this pastor that people would come from far and wide just to observe and to learn the secret of this great church’s ministry. When people would walk through the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon would take them to the basement prayer room where people were always on their knees interceding for the church. Then Spurgeon would declare, "Here is the powerhouse of this church." A praying church will be a powerful church, for it will be a church that perpetually depends and avails itself to the power of God through its prayer. If we are going to minister in the valley as we wait for the Lord’s return, we must be a people of great prayer!

O it would be glorious to dwell in tabernacles on mountain peaks surrounded by the glory of Christ and the company of spiritual giants. But God is pleased to leave us in the valley for a season, representing Him to the multitudes who are looking to Him to lift their burdens. We must resist being drawn into distractions from the main thing of pointing people to the Christ who can transform their lives. We must recognize that this can only happen where there is overcoming faith and abundant prayer. A church in the valley must be thus characterized – keeping the main thing the main thing, avoiding trivial distractions, representing Jesus to a world in need of Him, fostering faith in itself and the community around it, and wearing out its knees in prayer. We are not left to do this alone. Though Christ is risen and ascended, the Spirit has come to indwell God’s people. His power is available to work in us, for us, and through us, if these things be true of us as Christ’s Church. May God make it so.