37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God.

But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Luke 9:37-50

Introduction

Have you ever felt really frustrated by someone else’s lack of effort, consideration, change of behavior? Sure you have. How many wives in here have asked their husband to pick up their socks, help in some household chore (vacuuming, washing dishes, taking out the trash, take care of the kids, etc.), only to have their husbands glued to ESPN and respond with hypnotic circles in their eyes saying in a monotone voice, ‘Yes, honey, later,’ and only to see the deed never done? How many parents in here have asked their kids to clean their room, pick up after themselves, turn off the lights, or countless of other requests, only to find them uncompleted? How many of you have shot off an email to another, only to find that your request goes completely ignored or unanswered? It’s frustrating to continually remind someone of a responsibility that they have, only to have them repeatedly disregard what you have said. Such a response leads you to believe that not only are your words unimportant, but you yourself are not a priority in his or her life.

But in each situation, there is one problem. The frustrated person is not perfect himself. Wives who criticize their husbands about failing to take up certain chores, are often themselves guilty of their own foibles. Parents who ask their kids to clean their rooms perhaps have their own bed unmade or their own bathroom out of order. The person frustrated by an email or phone call unresponded has outstanding phone calls or emails that he himself has not responded to. The reality is that our frustrations are never out of our own perfect moral righteousness. We are very much like the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21ff. We want forgiveness when we fail, but we fail to show mercy to those who fail us.

There is one person, however, who has perfectly kept every moral requirement. And of course, His name is Jesus. Thus, whenever He rebuked or judged another, He did so without a hint of hypocrisy. Jesus’ anger was always a righteous anger, and His frustration was a perfect and holy frustration. Luke 9:37-50 gives a number of instances where Jesus’ righteous anger is displayed against 4 failures that the disciples needed to address in their lives in order to be able to understand who Jesus truly was: 1) Faithlessness, 2) Spiritual Blindness, 3) Pride, and 4) Misdirection. Each failure was keeping them from understanding who Jesus was and why He came to earth. And so, we can learn much from the disciples here because each struggles with these same failures. And unless we understand how to overcome such failure, we too will also fail to understand who Jesus is and what He did for us. We’ll cover Faithlessness this week so let’s examine the first failure, Faithlessness.

Faithlessness: Not Trusting God (vv. 37-43)

Faithlessness is essentially a failure to trust that God can do anything He so wills. Matthew, Mark, along with Luke, helps paint the scene for us. Mark seems to tell us that Jesus’ disciples were in a disagreement with the scribes, perhaps because the scribes were ridiculing the disciples for being unable to heal the sick boy (vv. 14-17). Matthew 17:14-15 and Mark 9:18 explain that the boy has epilepsy, is prone to throw himself often into fire and water, foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth. Luke also contends that the disease in this instance is a result of a demon.

And so, out of desperation, the father turns to Jesus’ disciples for help saying in verse 40: “And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” The critical question here is, “Why couldn’t they cast out the demon?”

The answer is that they lacked faith. What’s amazing about this answer is what has taken place thus far in chapters 8-9 of Luke. Let me recap: 8:22-25 = Jesus calms the raging storm instantaneously; 8:26-39 = He casts out man demons out of the Gerasene man; 8:40-56 = He healed the woman with uterine bleeding for 12 years, He also raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead; 9:10-17 = He feeds about 20,000 people with nothing more than 5 loaves and 2 fish; 9:28-36 = He is revealed in all of His glory with Moses and Elijah. In other words, Jesus had performed miracles that were far beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. The disciples even had front-row seats to every one of them and yet, they still struggled with their faith.

And yet, despite all of their noble efforts, they couldn’t heal the boy. The boy probably had scars all over his body from his falls into the fire. He was probably disheveled, unkempt, maybe smelled really bad because it was difficult for him to bathe. So as the disciples tried to cast out the demon and heal the boy, judging from Jesus’ response, they probably used techniques and rigorous efforts to heal the boy. But they failed to see their lack of faith. In verse 41, Jesus tells everyone: “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” They did not truly believe that Jesus was who He said He was, even despite his miracles. They did not understand who was at the root of the miracles. It was never about the miracle itself, or even the object of the miracle (storm, Gerasene man, thousands who needed to be fed). No, the miracle was only possible because of the God behind it.

Also, Jesus’ rebuke of the “faithless and twisted generation” would have reminded people of Moses. In Numbers 14:27, God asks Moses and Aaron: “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?” Moses later in Deut 32:5, before he was about to die, warns Israel of their wayward past by telling them: “They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.” In other words, they continually see God work miracle after miracle and they still grumble and turn against Him. They still refuse to believe He is the God who always provides, always protects, always rules and reigns, always keeps His promises. They are a faithless people.

A Portrait of the Faithless

And that’s what faithless people do. Faithless people refuse to trust God even after God has continually provided for His people. Faithless people have a short memory. They forget blessing, mercy, grace, forgiveness received. The faithless only focus on current trials, faults, deficiencies. The faithless have a veneer of external holiness but internally, there is nothing but the darkness of self-righteousness, self-effort and self-praise. And so Jesus’ disciples, though outwardly they followed Jesus, inwardly they still didn’t believe He was who He said He was. And my friends, we too struggle with the same failure as the disciples. Faithlessness or unbelief keeps us from seeing Christ as He is. We forget the Gospel because we regularly struggle with the Gospel’s relevance in our lives. Like the disciples who were trying to cast out the demons by maximum effort and maximum holiness, we too believe that such efforts make us better parents, better siblings, better church members, better spouses, better Christians. But Martin Luther explains for us why this is so dangerous: “The wisdom and righteousness of the flesh look good, and so the righteousness of grace and faith is lost, and the righteousness of the law and works advanced and maintained.” (Martin Luther, Galatians, 52.)

Casting out demons look good, look spiritual. No one would fault them for their efforts. Our planning, strategies, efforts outwardly can look so good, so holy. But when we lose sight of WHO is the God to be worshipped in all that we do, when we lose sight of the WHY we do what we do, the righteousness of our works, our reputation, our fame, our glory is advanced and the Gospel is hidden. Jerry Bridges uses another word for faithlessness. He uses the word ‘godlessness’ and I think that’s exactly why Jesus rebuked the crowds and the disciples. They were more concerned with their inability to heal and cast out demons and probably how they appeared before others. They were probably more anxious about their own glory as Jesus’ DISCIPLES than concerned about how people viewed the God they were serving. And they would have been more enthralled by the power in demons being exorcised, than being amazed by the God who exorcised the demons. In this way, they were godless even as they promoted God. Jerry Bridges aptly describes this godlessness:

Now the sad fact is that many of us who are believers tend to live our daily lives with little or no thought of God. We may even read our Bibles and pray for a few minutes at the beginning of each day, but then we go out into the day’s activities and basically live as though God doesn’t exist. We seldom think of our dependence on God or our responsibility to Him. We might go for hours with no thought of God at all. In that sense, we are hardly different from our nice, decent, unbelieving neighbor. God is not at all in his thoughts and is seldom in ours. (Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 54.)

My dear friends, regardless of how long you’ve been a Christian, what you do as a Christian, what capacity you serve the church, we are all prone to be godless in our actions, to serve God for our own merit than to honor God for who He is and what He has done. If Jesus’ own disciples can faithlessly attempt to cast out demons, then surely I can preach a sermon without faith, or you can teach kids, even and especially your own kids the Gospel without Christ in view, or lead homegroup, or serve in leadership, or care for the homeless, or go to the outermost ends of the earth without God.

Are you trusting God today or are you trusting in the activities or works of God without Christ in view? What does your faith look like? Is it a faith based on outward appearances for others to see? Are you more concerned about what people think of you, than the God that you worship? Is it based on your effort (how hard you are working, how hard you are serving, where you are serving)? Such efforts, as Jesus point out to the disciples and to the crowd, will always fall short. God is not so much concerned with what you are specifically doing, as much as He is concerned about who you believe empowers you to live the life you live.

A Fight Against Faithlessness

So how can we fight faithlessness? I’d like to address two ways from Scripture.

1. We fight faithlessness when we FIND PROMISES ALREADY FULFILLED IN CHRIST.

Look at these wondrous words in 2 Corinthians 1:20-22: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” WOW! Do you see what Paul is saying? How can we ever doubt that God will not care for us, when 1) Jesus is our YES from God.

If you really understand what Jesus has accomplished for you at the cross, that He has freed you from the power of sin and death forever, that you are no longer guilty of your sins because of Christ’s sin-bearing work, then surely anything after the cross is grace upon grace. It’s exceeding or lavished grace. If God did nothing else for you but send His Son for you to take your sins, if you could understand just how great that grace is, then even if you lose a job, or a loved one, or should be put through the most arduous of trials, you would still find Christ so sweet and God so good because of the cross.

Is your faith in a circumstance that turns out well for you? Or is your faith in a work already accomplished in a God who has never failed you and Jesus is the proof , His YES, that He has never leaved you, nor will He ever forsake you. We are accepted, loved, cherished, adopted into His family, exalted, cared for, protected, provided for eternally because God has said, YES to us because of Jesus. And if that isn’t enough, we need not doubt this love because the TRIUNE GOD actively makes this happen. Look again at 2 Corinthians 1:21, the Father (God) establishes me and you in the Son (Christ) and this is guaranteed by the seal of the Spirit (Holy Spirit). God in Three Persons actively and wholly makes certain that we are saved. How can we ever doubt Him? No matter what? How can we ever imagine such a good would not love us?

2. We fight faithlessness when we ACT ON THE BASIS FULFILLED PROMISES.

God’s Word is filled with God’s commitment to keep His Word. David tells us in Psalm 19:7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Proverbs 30:5 says: “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” And Jesus declared: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) And so, if we believe that every promise of God is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, then to fight faithlessness requires our action. It’s for this reason that James says in James 2:17: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” It’s not that works lead to faith. But true faith is one that will always act on the assurance of God’s Word. True faith can’t help but act.

The story is told of a famous tightrope walker who was known to cross over waterfalls on a high wire. One day, the King of England was in attendance, watching this death-defying act. The man went across the falls and as he made his way back he asked the king if he thought he could push a wheelbarrow in front of him. The king said he believed he could. So off the man went with a wheelbarrow. On his return, he asked the king if he believed he could carry a sack of potatoes in the wheelbarrow. Again, the king said he believed he could do it. And so the man went with the sack of potatoes. Finally, as the tightrope walker retuned he asked the king, “Do you believe I could carry a man across in the wheelbarrow?” The king answered that he did. The tightrope walker’s response was, “Your majesty, please step in.” (From Gospel Transformation, 121.)

The king never did get in. So the question is, do you think the king had faith in the man? One could say yes because he seemed genuine in his responses. Intellectually, he believed. But faith is much more. It’s the firm belief, as revealed through action, that one has the power to accomplish what He has promised. And Jesus asked his disciples, in a sense, to step into the wheelbarrow, to trust Him completely, believing HE was powerful enough to do anything. But they couldn’t do it. They trusted in themselves more in that they focused more on the act of healing than Jesus who did the healing. And my friends, Jesus is asking you, “Will you step into the wheelbarrow?” How can we do this?

Well, how about when you’re tempted to be angry at someone? Do you take Him at His Word and believe that you are a sinner and that if you won’t forgive another, God won’t forgive you? (John 20:23) Do you believe that even if you are in the right, God is the Avenger and you can trust Him and not seek retribution or vengeance? (Rom 12:17-19) Faith means forgiveness and mercy even when the other is undeserving. Faith means fighting your anger and frustration. Faith exhibits itself through grace, peace, and forgiveness.

Do you believe that God knows what He’s doing with your life? Do you believe God cares for you like a father? (2 Cor 6:18) Do you take God at His Word that He will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter how dire, how tragic, how challenging the circumstances are in your life? (Heb 13:5) Don’t you believe that “if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30) If you say yes, then getting in the wheelbarrow is fighting anxiety with God’s promise. Worry is faithlessness. It doesn’t believe God is true to His promises. Faith exhibits itself through peace and joy.

Do you believe that God has given you a new identity and reputation? Gal 4:4-7 says you a son of God and an heir through Christ. Faithlessness leads us to be ruled by what we look like before others (whether my gift is good enough, brand-name enough/concern for where I went to school/cleanliness of house/fishing for compliments/sounding intelligent/more concerned of how our kids behavior makes us look like bad parents than our concern for our kids growing in humble submission before the Lord/school choice/athletic prowess/material possessions owned, etc.) Faith exhibits itself through contentment and joy.

Thus, fighting faithlessness is firmly taking God at His Word through His Word. And we know that He always keeps His promises because Jesus is proof of this reality. And so because of this, we act. We don’t merely say with the King of England, “We believe God can do it.” We are actually willing to get into the wheelbarrow.

Conclusion

Going back to the disciples, you can almost hear Jesus’ frustration, “How long am I to bear with [your faithlessness]?” Thanks be to God that Jesus answers His own question in the next few verses. Despite the fact that the disciples fail to see the cross and its power, Jesus does not give up on them. And that is good news for all of us. So next week, we’ll examine this second failure of the disciples, Spiritual Blindness.