Mark 9:2-29 Service Part 2

[00:00:00] The reading is taken from St. Mark's Gospel, chapter 9, verses 2 to 29. [00:00:10] It was not recorded on the original master tape. [00:00:25] We come to this next subsection of this fifth and last section of the Servant of the Lord at work. [00:00:41] We have already in our studies before dealt with the principle of the cross. I've entitled the principle of the Cross explained some while ago, but nevertheless we have covered that. And I suggest that if any of you were not here for that time, you read the notes that are on it, because they are in fact very important indeed. [00:01:14] Now, this evening I don't want to go over that at all. I want to start straight away with this next section, the Transfiguration of Christ. [00:01:24] And I have entitled it the Principle of the Cross Illustrated. The Principle of the Cross illustrated from verse 2 to verse 29, from verse 2 to verse 29 of chapter 9. [00:01:46] It was about a week after Peter's great confession and Christ's first clear declaration that he was going to die on the cross and be raised on the third day, and his enunciation of the principle of the cross, which we have in Mark 8, 34, 35. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. It was about a week after these events. Luke says eight days. Mark says six days. It was about a week. You must all remember that in the old world the Gentiles had no splitting up of a week. There was no Such thing as 7 days, 10 days, or anything like that. It was just days, rather like in old time China. [00:02:47] But the seven day week, for want of a better word, is a Jewish institution. [00:02:54] And so consequently Luke says it was about eight days, whereas Mark says after six days. Well, it was a week. [00:03:04] A week after those tremendous statements by the Lord Jesus Christ, by Peter, thou art the Christ, and then by the Lord Jesus Christ, that he took Peter, James and John alone, apart from the other disciples, and climbing a high mountain, he was transfigured before them in the glory of God. Not only his face and body shone with the radiant glory of God, but his very clothes radiated light. [00:03:49] So tremendous was this incident, so tremendous was this event, that wherever it is mentioned in scripture, it is always mentioned with an atmosphere of awe. [00:04:08] Christ as man had reached the glory of God. I say as man because there are some who would look upon the transfiguration as the glory of his deity shining out. [00:04:24] I'm not sure about that at all. [00:04:27] I think it was, as we shall see, the last Adam succeeding where the first Adam failed and passing into the very glory of God. [00:04:45] Now, one or two comments before we go any further. [00:04:50] First, the high mountain. We read of that in chapter nine and verse two. He took them up, led them up a high mountain. [00:05:05] Where was it? Well, there's been discussion about this high mountain. Most scholars today believe that it is Mount Hermon, not the traditional Mount Tabor. [00:05:18] Traditionally, it is Mount Tabor. Mount Tabor is 1,800ft above sea level. And it is absolutely true that the view from the top of Mount Tabor gives an impression of tremendous height. You look over the whole valley of Armageddon, the valley of Jezreel, and you see the Jordan Valley on the other side. And looking back, you see the Lake of Galilee. It does give an impression of tremendous height. But most modern scholarship believes that it was Mount Hermon that the Lord led them up. Mount Hermon is over 9,000ft high. It is approximately 12 miles northeast of Caesarea Philippi, where Peter made his great confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Well, for us, I suppose it's not all that important where it was. The second thing, a comment I would like to make, is why did he take only Peter, James and John? [00:06:20] Now, this happened a number of times, you will remember, when the Lord Jesus took. [00:06:27] When the Lord Jesus went to Jairus daughter, he left the others outside and took with him Peter, James and John. [00:06:42] And then again another occasion when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. He went forward and took with him three. [00:06:55] The three again. Peter, James and John. [00:07:02] Why did he take these three with him? Was it favoritism? [00:07:09] Were they a kind of inner elite? [00:07:13] I don't know whether we have the answer to it. What I would like to do is to answer the question by asking another. Was it that they were spiritually more responsive than the others? Now, if that was so, then we have here an illustration which we've had again and again in this Gospel according to Mark. To him that hath it shall be given. [00:07:43] People don't like that very much these days. To him that hath shall be given and he that hath not, what he's got shall be taken away. It's a riddle, isn't it? But what the Lord means is, if there is a spiritual capacity, if there is a spiritual vitality, if there is a spiritual responsiveness, sensitivity, then that person will grow all the time. More and more and more will be given to them. [00:08:14] Well, it's a comment. [00:08:17] Third little comment I would just like to make on this matter is we must not understand the transfiguration of Christ as merely a kind of glory shining around him or upon him. You know, many people have got the idea of this sort of blazing light as a kind of spotlight that came down from heaven, a kind of spotlight that shone on him and made his garments as it were dazzling and as it were irradiated his features and the contour of his body. But we must not understand the transfiguration of the in glorified, in glory like that at all. [00:09:07] A change took place in him physically. [00:09:16] And the glory of God shone not upon him, nor around him, but out of him. [00:09:28] Now, the very word, the very Greek word means change of form. Metamorphosis, we say in English, if anyone can understand that ghastly term. [00:09:40] But we speak of, for instance, a caterpillar. [00:09:45] There is a metamorphosis takes place. The caterpillar becomes a chrysalis. Then another metamorphosis takes place and the chrysalis becomes a butterfly. It's a change of form. [00:09:58] The same substance changes in form as it were another form. Now, this is the very word that is used of the transfiguration of Christ. It wasn't that God's glory just shone on him, God's glory had shone on others, but rather that God's glory came from within him and changed him physically. [00:10:22] So that Luke puts it, the fashion of his countenance was altered. [00:10:28] Matthew says that his face shone like the sun at noonday. [00:10:36] And all of them speak of the garments of his garments, of his clothes being dazzling white or whiter than any bleacher could possibly bleach them. [00:10:52] My fourth comment before we go on to the spiritual meaning of all this is this mark clearly emphasizes the connection of the transfiguration with the events preceding. Now he's quite clear about this, as indeed are the other synoptic writers. He says in verse two, and after six days, he deliberately connects the transfiguration and the story of this demon possessed lad. He deliberately connects it with the events immediately preceding. What were those events? Those events were, as I have said, the declaration of Peter, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The definition of Christ, if you like. The first time that he clearly defined what his work was. I must go to Jerusalem and be killed and bear it, and on the third day rise again. The annunciation of the principle of the cross. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. He who would save his life shall lose it. And he that loseth his life for my sake and The Gospels, the same shall find it now that is why I have entitled this section the Principle of the Cross Illustrated. The principle of the Cross Illustrated. The transfiguration of Christ is the very illustration of the principle of the cross. [00:12:31] And the event that immediately followed succeeded. His transfiguration also illustrates the principle of the cross. Now let's come to look a little more at what it means. [00:12:45] Truly, this transfiguration of Christ, this event was an event unique in the whole history of man. Never at any time had a man been transfigured with and by the glory of God. Adam, it is true, had been made for that glory, but had sinned and fallen short of it. [00:13:19] The long history of man, beginning at that point, is anything but glory. [00:13:32] We remember the words of the apostle Romans 3:23. For there is no difference or no distinction. [00:13:40] All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [00:13:48] Every single one from Adam had come short of the glory for which we were all originally destined and created. [00:14:04] It's true, of course, that at times, through the grace of God alone, and we must emphasize that his glory visited the earth. We think of occasions like Exodus chapter 16 and verse 10. Listen to this. And he came to pass as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. Or again in Exodus chapter 24 and verse 16 and 17. And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Or we could give you many other occasions when the glory of God visited the earth. [00:15:08] Nevertheless, even the greatest Old Testament figures were not transfigured in that glory. [00:15:18] You take Acts 2. 7. We're told the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, but Abraham was never transfigured with them by the glory of God. [00:15:32] We read in 2 Corinthians 3:7. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face which glory was passing away. Or again in verse 13, and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that glory which was passing away. [00:16:13] Yes, you will remember the occasion when Moses face shone after he had met God face to face and been in touch with the glory of God. [00:16:26] Nevertheless, he was not transfigured in glory. [00:16:32] God's glory had never found a permanent home in any man because no one had ever been found worthy of it. [00:16:51] Fallen, corrupted, sinful, flesh and blood could never obtain the glory of God. [00:17:03] I say this event which we study this evening, we look at this evening, is unique in the long history of man. Why? Because now we see Christ as man obtaining the glory of God. For the first time we see a man attaining to God's glory. [00:17:29] Where the first man, Adam, had fallen so miserably short of God's glory, the last Adam, the second man, as Paul puts it, victoriously obtains it. [00:17:53] Now, I don't know whether it's putting it rather irreverently to put it like this. [00:18:02] The Lord Jesus obtained the glory of God because he was inherently and practically worthy of it. Now that's not irreverent. But what I now want to say is God could do no other than give it to him. [00:18:21] God could not righteously withhold that glory of his from Christ because he deserved it. [00:18:32] By the very character he expressed during those three years of incessant service, he had won the glory of God. Now what happens? His very form was changed by it, as if the sun at full strength was shining not upon him, but from within him. Think just as if the sun itself had come down within him and was shining out from his very body, so that the very texture of his skin, of his flesh, of his blood was changed and irradiated. The glory of God. It was not reflected light as the moon, but inherent light as the sun. [00:19:22] His transfiguration was in fact a moment of divine fulfillment. [00:19:29] It was the fulfillment of all that the law and the prophets had revealed and pointed to. And that is why at this point, Moses and Elijah appear together. For in all Jewish minds, Moses and Elijah sum up the whole Old Testament. [00:19:53] Moses sums up the books of the Law, and Elijah sums up what they call the prophets. [00:20:02] And I suppose the writings are carved up between them, I don't quite know. But I do know that Moses and Elijah sum up the whole Old Testament. All its hopes, all its types, all its aspirations, all its yearnings are represented and as it were, expressed in these two men, Moses and Elijah. [00:20:32] All that was fulfilled in Christ in his person and in the work he was yet to do. You will remember that Luke tells us that the talk of Moses and Elijah with Christ was about the work that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. And they used a very interesting word for the word decease. They used the Greek word Exodus. [00:21:06] They talked of his exodus, what he was going to do on the cross. He was going to do something that summed up and fulfilled the passover feast, the passover lamb. That somehow the crossing of the Red Sea was but a pale little shadow of a reflection of now. Christ's transfiguration in glory was the evidence of that fulfillment, just as if God said, everything that belongs in the Old Testament is entirely fulfilled in my Son here. It's interesting to note in passing that both Moses and Elijah were outstanding servants of the Lord. Indeed, they are the two greatest examples of true service in the Old Testament. Yet their character and service pales into insignificance. Next to Christ, the servant of the Lord, God had found the one who perfectly answered all he ever meant or desired in the word or term service. [00:22:32] Christ's transfiguration was God's seal on that perfection. [00:22:40] As if God was finally putting his seal on that perfection and saying, he is qualified and capable of going forward now to fulfilling his supreme work at Calvary. One old divine put it that it was very much like the priest passing the Lamb for sacrifice, as spotless, unblemished, perfect. [00:23:08] That was the transfiguration. [00:23:12] Now, for Peter and James and John, it was a lesson they never forgot. Listen to the way Peter speaks of it in 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter, chapter 1, from verse 16. [00:23:39] For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming or presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there was born such a voice to him by the majestic glory. [00:24:05] This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice we ourselves heard born out of heaven when we were with him on the Holy Mount. Or again you think of John's words. In John chapter 1 and verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. [00:24:44] Yes, they never quite forgot this lesson. It had a tremendous effect upon the three of them. [00:24:53] You will remember that Peter, in his excitement and fear, we are told in Luke that they'd been asleep and they were heavy with sleep, and Peter woke up suddenly. Now, because of this, some of the commentators have decided that they stayed up there overnight. [00:25:11] Well, we will wait till we Come to the Gospel according to Luke to face that one. I'm not so sure about it, because I think most Christians have thought that when Peter, in his excitement and fear, said, lord, let's build three tabernacles. Everyone has thought of the tabernacles in the Old Testament, the tabernacle. [00:25:31] And I don't think it's wrong that we should get the spiritual lesson from it, that people are all the time trying to build great edifices or systems or organizations for Moses and Elijah and Christ to imprison them within it and somehow to divide the glory of Christ with others. But you just think for a moment now, Peter wasn't such a silly man that he thought they could build a tabernacle there and then up on that mountain. [00:26:01] The mountain was covered with a kind of scrubby bush and tree. [00:26:06] And in heat, there's always a lot that dies back. And therefore there's always a lot of branches around that are dead and other branches that can be broken off. What Peter meant was this. He meant, let's build you the kind of booths we build in the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, these booths are the little sort of few poles and a lot of leaves or palm leaves or other things on top. And everyone goes out sitting there to remember that the children of Israel were pilgrims through the wilderness. [00:26:40] And it was called the Feast of Tabernacles, nothing to do with the Tabernacle, the Feast of Tabernacles or booths. [00:26:47] And what Peter really meant was this. [00:26:51] Oh, you'll get burned by the sun up here on the mountain. [00:26:56] Let us make you a kind of booth. We'll make a shelter for Moses and a shelter for Elijah and a shelter for Christ so that all three of you have got some shade. [00:27:10] And it says, of course, adding in a very human way. He said this because he didn't know what to say. [00:27:17] How like us all, when caught on the hop, we just say the first thing that comes into our head to keep the conversation going. Well, that's exactly really what Peter did. He just suddenly said the first thing. He said, well, Lord, come on, we better make three booths for you here. [00:27:35] He had no sooner said it than a cloud, the cloud of God's glory, came down and concealed it. [00:27:42] And again, Luke tells us that they feared exceedingly as they went into the cloud. And then out of the cloud of God's glory, that majestic glory, a voice said, this is my beloved Son. [00:28:00] Hear ye him. [00:28:06] With death. The cloud lit, and when it lifted, it revealed Jesus only. [00:28:22] Well, now, what really does this mean in his baptism, Christ, as the servant of the Lord, had willingly undertaken to do the work which God had given him to do, he committed himself in those waters to the death of the cross. [00:28:51] In his anointing, he had received from God the authority, the power, the resources he needed to fulfill his service and to complete that work which God had given him to do. God, in other words, had committed himself to the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus committed himself to God's will and purpose, God committed himself to the Lord Jesus with all his resources, all his authority, and all his power. [00:29:27] In his temptation. [00:29:30] His fitness for service had been tested and proved, and he had started his ministry. [00:29:44] Now, after three years of incessant and sacrificial service, in which he had proved again and again that his was a life laid down not only for God, but for man as well, the glory of God transfigured him once again as at his baptism, the voice of God is heard expressing his delight, his unbounded joy, his complete satisfaction in the kind of character and nature which Christ expressed in the kind of service that Christ was giving. [00:30:34] God, as it were, owns that kind of service. [00:30:39] Can I put it in another way? Let me put it this way. It was as if God was saying, now that kind of service which I see in my Son corresponds absolutely with my own heart and my own mind. That's the kind of thing I call service. [00:31:01] Do not just think that God, the voice out of heaven, was some sort of histrionics on the part of God, some kind of dramatics on the part of God. I don't believe it. As if God was putting on a show for people. I believe that God himself was spontaneously delighted by what he saw in His Son. [00:31:27] It wasn't just that suddenly someone had passed some race or test, but rather that His Son had. [00:31:37] Through three years, night and day, week in, week out, month by month, over those three solid years proved in storm and sunshine a kind of sacrificial, selfless service that was absolutely divine. [00:32:01] Because of that, God said, this is my beloved Son. And Matthew and Peter in his letter adds, in whom I am well pleased, in whom is my delight or my joy? Hear ye him. [00:32:20] Do note the emphasis on these two things. That when everything had lifted, it was Jesus only. And hear ye him. [00:32:34] Hasn't that got something to say to you and me? It's at least as I see it. Surely it indicates that this kind of service is the service alone which God can accept. [00:32:50] Not even Moses, not even Elijah, Jesus own life. [00:32:56] Hear him. [00:32:58] Hear him. [00:33:01] If you will hear him, if you will allow those two single words, so simple that a kindergarten child can understand them, if you will allow those two words to pierce through to the inner part of your being. [00:33:18] And there is found there the obedience of faith. God will do the rest. What are those two words? Follow me. [00:33:28] We relegate that to the kind of kindergarten of spiritual life, of the Christian life. It's not so at all. It is true that it is initial in one way, yes, of course. But it's fundamental and essential to every single part of the Christian life. Follow me. [00:33:50] Jesus, only hear ye him. [00:34:02] Then Mark draws our attention to something deeply impressive. [00:34:11] There is no doubt that the immediately following miracle concerning the epileptic and demon possessed boy is full of significance. It is not just a miracle, it is a sign. [00:34:30] Christ deliberately descends from the mountaintop of glory into the valley of human need, terrible human need. [00:34:44] And from this point onwards, it's a steady moving toward Calvary. When he came down from Mount Hermon, if it was Mount Hermon, then he went back to Capernaum. From Capernaum he went on down to Jericho. And from Jericho he went up to Jerusalem and to Calvary. [00:35:05] The whole theme of his conversation as he was coming down the mountain was his coming passion. We had that. In verses 9 to 13 of this chapter 9, for the second time, he plainly refers to his death and resurrection. But the three did not understand. Isn't it amazing? They even spiritualize it. Now here is a little aside. [00:35:38] When they should take something literally, they spiritualize it. And when they should spiritualize something or get the spiritual content of it, they take it literally. Isn't that just like you and me? [00:35:49] When the Lord tells us to do something literally, I find people continually spiritualizing. And when we should get the spiritual content of something, he says we literally take it. Oh, how light then we are. [00:36:02] Even after the great confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. [00:36:08] Simon, bow. Jonah, Flesh, blessed art thou. Flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. [00:36:16] Even after that, even after seeing his transfiguration in glory, they still don't understand you note the way it's put here. So, verse 10. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising, this rising from the dead meant. [00:36:34] Now, obviously, if he'd said, I'm going to rise from the dead, they understood that he was going to die and rise again. Something was going, but they were spiritualizing it. They thought, no, this must mean what he said. When he said, and the Dead shall hear my voice and live. [00:36:54] Even when they bring up the question of Elijah's coming, due no doubt to the fact that they'd just seen him talking to the Lord, he answers by bringing them back to his coming passion. You see, we're all like this. They say, lord, what about Elijah? You know Malachi's prophecy that he shall come and shall turn the fathers to the children, the children to the father? What about that, Lord? And the Lord says, yes, yes, yes, and Elijah will come. But then he takes them straight back to his coming passion and says, and you know what they that's what it said of the Son of man, that he will suffer many things will be killed. And what did they do to Elijah? I tell you that John the Baptist was Elijah. He's come, and they did to him just those things that were written of him. It's in passing. Again, may I just point you to the fact that there is an ambiguity in the way the Lord answered this question. Many people want to know, will Elijah come before the coming of the Lord, or will there be another, like John the Baptist or a group like John the Baptist? Well, the Lord answers ambiguously. He says, if you look very clearly in verse 12, first he says, indeed Elijah will come, or Elijah doth come and restore things, all things first. And then he says in verse 13, Elijah has indeed come. [00:38:19] So there is an ambiguity about it. But we won't stop with that. This evening there was in fact no need for Christ to come down from that mountaintop. No need, as far as he was concerned, to go forward to Calvary. The only thing that impelled Christ to do so was the kind of character and nature he had, the kind of person he is. He could not stay on the mountaintop enjoying the glory alone. [00:38:52] Once again, Christ lays his glory by. And as the servant of the Lord goes forward to the cross, now in doing so, in my estimation, he proves again, as never before, his utter worthiness to be glorified. [00:39:16] That kind of character, that kind of service God can glorify. [00:39:24] And may I say something else? In his laying of his glory by again, as he had once before laid his glory by, as he laid his glory by this time, the glory of a man who had attained to God's glory in laying that glory by, he became a perfect example of what he himself taught in Mark, chapter 8, verse 34. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. [00:40:12] We have already said that the miracle we've got here from verses 14 to 29 is full of significance. Now, I don't think I need to say it here. There was no glory in that situation or condition. Rather, it was a situation full of darkness, full of unbelief, full of bondage, full of demon possession, full of cruelty. Wherever you look in this scene, there is nothing but failure. You look at the theologians, the religionists, they are arguing, debating, disputing. You look at the disciples. They are utterly defeated. [00:40:56] You look at the Father. He is in anguish, bewildered, overcome. You look at the boy. He is possessed, torn by something too powerful for himself to contain or to control. [00:41:17] It was a case far beyond human resources. And Christ, the servant of the Lord, laying aside his own glory and coming down from that mountain top, delivers and heals the boy. [00:41:34] In laying down his life more deeply, he brings life and light and glory into a situation of death and bondage and degradation. [00:41:48] I am very interested in the way that Luke puts it in Luke 9 telling this story. He puts it like this, Luke 9:43 and they were all astonished at the majesty of God. Now if someone had said about the three of them on the mount of transfiguration, and they were all astonished at the majesty of God, I would have understood it. And if someone had said about the deliverance and healing of this epileptic and demon possessed boy, they were all astonished at the authority of God or the power of God. I would have understood it. But is it not marvelous that Luke, by the Holy Spirit says they were all astonished at the majesty of God. He connects it with the transfiguration. [00:42:42] This whole thing is part of a whole. We're being taught a tremendous lesson here. What is the lesson? Well, it's the principle of the cross illustrated. The Lord Jesus himself, having come to the glory, lays his glory and comes down into a situation which is absolutely hopeless and gives himself to it. [00:43:11] I think we may well see in this situation a picture of the world in its fallen and hopeless condition and in Christ an illustration of the character of true, selfless, involved, compassionate, available. [00:43:30] Now just look at the miracle, will you, for a few moments. I want just to point out to you four things again about it which may be of help to you. [00:43:43] Firstly, my first comment is this the boy. [00:43:47] The boy was probably not more than 12 years of age. If you look at verse 24 we're told the Father of the child. And in verse 26 we're told the boy was delivered. So it is quite clear, and we must remember this, that it was only a boy. Probably we would almost refer to as a child. Here Whereas many people look upon this one as a young man, as a youth. Really, I don't think that's right. Boy under 12 years of age. Secondly, I want you to notice the way Christ seeks to bring the Father to a place of faith. [00:44:30] It really is rather wonderful. The way the Lord Jesus says in verse 23, if thou canst, if you can, all things are passable to him that believes. Now, he didn't say that harshly or sarcastically. [00:44:48] He said, if you can, you see, verse 21. And Jesus asked his Father, how long has he been like this? Now, the Lord Jesus knew. Why did he ask him? Because he wanted to draw out the whole sad, sorry condition from the Father. Listen to the Father, he said, from childhood. And Jesus often cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us. [00:45:18] What do you think the Lord Jesus was doing? Don't you think the Lord Jesus, being so full of compassion, ought to have got on with the job and healed the boy? Straight away, the boy was writhing on the floor, contorted. The Lord Jesus was saying to the Father, now how long has he been like this? [00:45:36] What was the Lord doing? [00:45:39] A little later on, it says, when the Lord saw the crowd running together, he quickly did something. He wouldn't have done it earlier. What was he doing? [00:45:47] He was doing something with the Father. [00:45:50] What was he doing? Listen, if you can do something, have pity on us and help us. And the Lord said, if you, you can. [00:46:03] All things are possible to him that believes. [00:46:11] Can I put it this way? And this is of great help to me. It was as if the Lord said, even if you can't, I believe if you can. See, we often take it that the Lord was rebuking the Father. [00:46:27] The Father certainly took it that way. But the Lord would say, if you, meaning me, if I can, all things are possible to him that believes, I'll do it, See? And then the Father cried out, have you ever thought about it? I believe, Help thou mine unbelief. Now, what on earth did he mean? Now? He obviously didn't mean, I believe. Please support me in my unbelief. [00:46:55] That's what it would mean. Help thou mine unbelief. Support me in my unbelief. But of course, he didn't mean that, did he? What did he mean? Phillips puts it, please increase my faith. I don't think that's what the Father meant at all. Do you know what I think the Father meant? I believe the New English Bible has got it this is what the Father meant. He said, I believe where my faith falls short. Help me now, isn't that beautiful? [00:47:22] Now, I want to say something that may shock some people. That is true faith. [00:47:30] That is true faith. Where my faith falls short, Lord, I believe where my faith falls short. Take over. [00:47:41] That's faith. [00:47:44] Step in. Bridge the gap. [00:47:47] That's faith. [00:47:52] Well, I leave it for you to think about and chew on. [00:47:59] The fourth comment I would like to make is there are three essential constituents in this kind of ministry. [00:48:07] The first is we find in verse 19 and 20, bring him to me. And they brought the boy to him. [00:48:18] It is to Christ that we must bring all needs. [00:48:27] Don't think you will ever be healed by someone who's got a gift inside of them. Their gift, if they have a true gift, is the gift of Christ. Christ is operating through them. That's real gifts. [00:48:44] So when we come to the elders or when we seek fellowship, it's as if we're seeking the Lord through them. [00:48:52] We are bringing our need to Christ, not to people. If we bring it to people, there will be the danger of mixture, counterfeit or failure because our faith is in. [00:49:04] No, never. Bring him to me. And they brought the boy to him. [00:49:10] We are only. Our job as his servants is to bring the Lord into touch with need and need into touch with the Lord. That's why we're told to do all things in the name of Jesus Christ. We're saying, I'm a member of his body. We are members of his body. We act in his name. [00:49:31] We must learn this lesson. [00:49:34] The second essential constituent is faith. [00:49:38] Verse 19 and 23, when the Lord said, o faithless generation. And then verse 20, if you can. All things are possible to him that believes. I believe, said the Father. Where my faith falls short, Help me. [00:50:01] Yes. And the last essential, by the way. Faith in him, in the Lord. [00:50:09] And thirdly. [00:50:11] Sorry, did I say yes, I did. Three central constituents. Prayer and fasting, verse 29. This kind cannot be driven out by anything, but by prayer and fasting. Now, you will notice that in all the modern versions from the English Revised onwards, the word and fasting is left out. And that is quite right, because the word and fasting is not in the oldest manuscripts, but the addition of the words and fasting is absolutely valid. Why? Because the Lord obviously meant more than ordinary prayer. [00:50:47] That's why they ended it, lest people think, oh, mutter a few prayers and get on with it. That's not saying you go in for a disappointment. [00:50:55] This needs real prayer. [00:50:59] The kind of prayer that's travailing prayer. The kind of prayer that gets to grips with the situation. This kind cannot be driven out by anything other than that prayer and fasting. Well, I just mentioned that. Well, now we must finish. [00:51:19] Now all of this. This is surely a most powerful illustration of the principle of the cross. [00:51:28] The principle of the Cross in true service. [00:51:31] It is surely not coincidence that the transfiguration of Christ followed upon what he said in Mark 8:31 to chapter nine, verse one. If you and I would know the glory, we must first know the Cross. [00:51:56] It is the only path to resurrection, life and glory indeed. May I put it this way? [00:52:04] The true path of the cross never leads to anything else than resurrection, life and glory. That's how you can judge whether you know the cross in your life. If you're just a miserable, empty, morbid, death bound saint, you can be quite sure you don't know the path of the cross. [00:52:27] That's not the cross. [00:52:29] The true path of the cross always leads to resurrection. Always, always, always for God. Never. God has no part to do with death. [00:52:41] He uses it only as a means to what he is. Himself is central life. [00:52:48] I am the resurrection and the life. The way to get into the resurrection and the life is the Cross. The way to experience it more fully is by a deeper experience of the course. And to know it more abundantly is an even deeper experience of the cross. [00:53:12] I want to say that because I think it needs to be said. When the Lord Jesus said, follow me, he does not ask us to walk a path that He Himself has not tried. [00:53:24] All he asks us is to follow in a path which he has clearly marked out himself. Isn't that what he meant in John chapter 12 when he said these words? Verse 23. The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. [00:53:47] Verily, verily I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life, loseth it. And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also my servant be. [00:54:13] If any man serve me, him will my Father honor him. [00:54:21] When the Lord Jesus said to those disciples at the beginning in Mark 1:17, follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men, did they realize what it entailed? If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. [00:54:45] I don't think they had any idea that a cross was entailed at the beginning. [00:54:50] But if we follow the Lord, it doesn't lead us just to the cross. Oh, no, it leads us to the cross and into the tomb and through the tomb into resurrection and then to glory. Now we've got this wherever we turn. For instance, look at 1 Peter 5:1 Peter 5:10. [00:55:15] And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect establish strengthen you. Chapter 4, verse 13 and 14. But insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice that at the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy if ye are reproached for the name of Christ. Blessed are ye, because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. Romans 8:17. Romans 8:17. If children and heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. And then I think of 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. Now does it stop there? All we've got to do is stand and behold him. All we've got to do is to keep our eyes on the Lord. And we're changed. Ah, but there's something more entailed. Look down. Forget the chapters and verses. There were no chapters and verses when Paul wrote it. Just look down. In what we call chapter four, verse seven, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. Then he goes on always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life also might be manifested. Then he says, so then life, death worketh in us, life in you. And then he says, for in verse 17, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, whilst we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. [00:57:22] Christ has become for us our glorious example, the kind of life he has, the kind of character of nature he reveals, the kind of service which we see here portrayed in Him. God will always glorify with his own glory. There's no question about it. Surely we need to note this evening and get clear on this matter that I don't know if you found it hard this evening. But let's get clear on this because if we could, it would be just tremendous. [00:58:08] God's idea of service is not something limited to the menial, to the mundane, to the insignificant. Now let me be quite clear here. Often a person's whole life will be bound up with the menial and with the mundane and with the insignificant. [00:58:33] But God's idea of service is not something limited to that. [00:58:41] God's idea of service is glory, glorious service. [00:58:51] Now you say to me, well now why do you say that? Well, I tell you why. We're going right back to the first lessons we learned about the Gospel according to Mark. [00:58:59] It is the very nature of God to serve, just as it is the very nature of God to rule. [00:59:09] God cannot help reigning, it is his nature. [00:59:14] God cannot help serving. It is his nature. [00:59:20] It is the character of divine sonship to serve. [00:59:29] Now let me say this clear in exactly the same way the character of divine sonship is to rule, to reign. We must in the end come out on top. [00:59:44] We've got a kind of inward royalty in us because we've got the life of God in us. [00:59:54] And that is essentially noble. [01:00:00] But it is the character of divine sonship to serve the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of God, who became the servant the Lord, the Son of man, came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. [01:00:32] Now if it is the character of divine sonship to serve, then may I say this, that it is that character and that nature alone which always reaches the glory. [01:00:48] See it in the martyrs, see it in the lives that did not end in martyrdom, but which were a perpetual martyrdom. [01:00:57] A life completely and utterly laid down. [01:01:01] It must reach the glory. It always reaches the glory. It can do no other than come to the glory. Think of what the Lord Jesus is when that little phrase in Hebrews 2:10 bringing many son unto glory. But how are those sons brought to glory? They're brought through service. [01:01:21] Those sons willingly become servants. And in the measure in which they become real servants, expressing and exhibiting the character and nature of divine sonship, they reach the glory. [01:01:35] Don't think that some crabby, selfish, self centered, egotistical Christian down here is going to suddenly be filled with the glory of God. It's a lie, an absolute lie. No self centered Christian is going to be filled with the glory of God if there's a speck of Jesus Christ in them that will be glorified. And if they've lived their whole lives centered around themselves, circling around themselves, just trying to get people interested in themselves, running around them, serving them, ministering them. All right work, grace in all the rest. [01:02:10] But there won't be much glory in that life. [01:02:14] When the Lord Jesus spoke of bringing many sons unto glory, it was his grace, the grace of God, that would bring them to the glory. [01:02:22] But it is the grace of God that enables us to become servants. [01:02:27] That's the point. We can talk about grace till we're blue in the face. [01:02:34] It doesn't mean thin. The grace of God is evidenced in the way that we as sons become servants of the Lord. I have to say it to myself as well as to you, for every one of us fall short on this matter. Isn't that again what it means when we read in Romans 8:14, as many as are led of the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. What does it mean to be led of the Spirit? Just led into some kind of self satisfying experience and condition and atmosphere, as if that's all there is to it. What does it mean to be led of the Spirit of God? If it doesn't mean that we're led into a Gethsemane, if we're not led into a Golgotha, if we're not led into many a tomb, that we might be led out into resurrection and increase and fruitfulness and glory, well, our time's gone. [01:03:31] I think when we are confronted with the quality and character of the service which we see in Christ, we must all feel that it is an impossible idea. [01:03:44] Don't you feel that when you see what he's like, and if you know what you're like, you must say, surely, surely this is an impossible ideal. But listen through his Cross and by the Holy Spirit, that nature and life of Christ is in us. [01:04:04] He can serve again in us. [01:04:09] And that's the secret. [01:04:12] Every time I let the servant of the Lord express himself in me, there is service. [01:04:19] And every time I do the expression it's just me. [01:04:26] Isn't that right? [01:04:28] It's a question of the principle of the cross. If we could only lay down our lives, if we could only let go so that the servant of the Lord could serve again to us. [01:04:40] It's God's nature to serve. [01:04:44] Now it is his nature not only to serve, but to sacrifice himself to lay down his life. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Don't think that the Lord Jesus who laid down his life yesterday, today will hold onto it. [01:05:06] He has a catechism. He is a person. He has a Nature, his very character or nature is to lay down his life, to give himself spontaneously, to make himself available always. It is his nature. [01:05:25] So when we are miserable as Christians, you know what it is? [01:05:29] We are spiritual schizophrenics. [01:05:32] We've got someone inside of us who wants to lay down his life, but we don't want to. [01:05:38] We've got someone inside of us who wants to sacrifice. We don't want to. So we start off as Christians, being the happiest people in the world. Sins all forgiven, all of it blotted out, justified by grace alone. We're in the clouds for a while, and then after a while, we start to hit the character and nature of the one who's come into us. [01:06:03] Then comes the tussle. [01:06:08] Now, when you're miserable, you can always be sure it's because you're selfish. [01:06:13] It is true. [01:06:15] People don't like it. They don't even like being reminded of it. But it's absolutely true. It's because we're selfish. [01:06:23] If we would only let go and let him, then something could happen in us which would bring us joy that we never thought was possible. The joy of forgetting self and serving God and others. [01:06:42] That, I say, is the illustration of the principle of the cross that we see in the transfiguration and the deliverance of this boy. Well, if the Lord Jesus can get into us like that, then that life and nature in us will go again and again to the cross. But it will come through again and again into greater resurrection life and greater fruitfulness and greater glory. [01:07:17] Well, there we are. We must finish. Let me just finally say one last thing. You and I are all going to be transfigured one day, even those of us who are crabby. [01:07:30] Yes, that's true. Every one of us. For the word of God says if we're saved and born of God, that in the twinkling of an eye it will happen. [01:07:41] When the trumpet of God says, and the dead in Christ rise first, then we which are alive and remain true, it's going to happen in that moment. [01:07:53] Well, we'll each one. I don't suppose we'll be conscious because being with the Lord, but every one of us, there will be a physical change, a change of form. [01:08:05] What there is of Christ in us will suddenly shine through us. Our flesh and blood will change, our bodies will change. We will be transfigured in glory. [01:08:19] And that's what we read about in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. What it means when the apostle says when he comes to be marvelous in all them that believe. [01:08:39] May God help us. Shall we bow together? [01:08:47] Lord, we do praise Thee and worship Thee for what thou art. [01:08:51] And we thank thee, Lord, from our hearts this evening that there was one who was so utterly worthy. We thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, who went through to the glory, and then laid it aside yet again and came down for us to deliver us and save us. We thank Thee for that, Lord, and we pray that Thou wilt somehow tackle the problem in every one of our lives. The problem of the self life, the problem of that which lies in the way of Thyself, the expression and release of thy character and nature in us. Lord, may we all know what it is to rise up and follow Thee. [01:09:42] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.