PT-4 "The Power of Faith" (Matt. 17:19-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/7/2022 9:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-4 “The Power of Faith”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 17:19-21

 

            Message of the verses:  “19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”

 

            I continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary as what he writes in explaining this section of Scripture brings new meaning to me.

 

            “It must also be clearly understood that Jesus was not talking about moving a literal mountain.  Neither the apostles nor the Lord Himself ever performed such a feat—nor has anyone else in the nearly 2,000-year history of the church.  That would have been the sort of grand but pointless miracle the scribes and Pharisees expected of the Messiah but which Jesus refused to perform (Matt. 12:38-39).

 

            “The expression ‘able to move mountains’ was a common figure of speech in that day that represented the ability to surmount great obstacles.  As William Barclay has observed,

 

A great teacher, who could really expound and interpret Scripture and who could explain and resolve difficulties, was regularly known as an uprooter or even a pulverizer of mountains.  To tear up, to uproot, to pulverize mountains were all regular phrases for removing difficulties.  Jesus never meant this to be taken physically and literally.  After all, the ordinary man seldom finds any necessity to remove a mountain.  What He meant was:  ‘If you have faith enough, all difficulties can be solved, and even the hardest task can be accomplished.  Faith in God is the instrument that allows men to remove the hills of difficulty which block their path. (The Gospel of Matthew [Philadelphia:  Westminster, 1959], pp. 184-185)

 

            “Jesus was talking figuratively about mountain-size difficulties, such as the nine disciples and just experienced in not being able to cure the demonized boy.

 

            “The promise nothing shall be impossible to you is conditional, valid only within the framework of God’s will.  Mountain-moving faith is not faith in oneself, much less faith in faith, but faith in God.  It is not faith itself, nor matter how great that moves mountains, but the God in whom the faith is grounded.  Faith has only as much power as its object.  When Jesus said to the Samaritan leper and the blind man of Jericho, ‘your faith has made you well’ (Luke 17:19; 18:42), He did not mean that their faith in itself healed them.  That would mean they healed themselves, which, of course, they did not do.

 

            “Jesus’ point was that ‘nothing shall be impossible to you when you prayerfully and persistently trust in Me.’  The disciples could not heal the demonized boy, even though they had Jesus’ commission and promised power, because they did not persist in dependent prayer.

 

            “Throughout the ages believers often have failed to receive God’s promised joy, freedom, forgiveness, guidance, fruitfulness, protection, wisdom, and countless other blessings simply because, like those disciples, they have not persisted in prayer.

 

            “This kind of demon does not go out except by prayer,’ Jesus declared.  Although that phrase is not found in the best manuscripts of Matthew (indicated by brackets in some versions), it is a genuine saying of Jesus and is found in Mark’s account (9:29), from which an early scribe probably picked it up and added it to Matthew.  However, the last two words of the verse, and fasting, are not found in the best manuscripts of any gospel.

 

            Jesus’ emphasis was clearly on prayer.  As James wrote some years later, ‘The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much’ (James 5:16).  Dedicated, fervent, passionate, persistent prayer gets results, because such prayer is honored by God.

 

            During one point of his ministry, the nineteenth-century Christian leader George Mueller began to pray for five personal friends.  It was not until five years later that the first one of them came to Christ.  After five more years, two more of them became Christians, and after twenty-five years the fourth man was saved.  He prayed for the fifth friend until the time of his death, a few months after which the last friend came to salvation.  For that friend George Mueller had prayed more than fifty years.”

 

I hope and pray that these last few SD’s that have come right from MacArthur’s commentary will be used by the Lord to accomplish much for the cause of Christ.

 

11/7/2022 10:12 AM

PT-3 "The Power of Faith" (Matt. 17:19-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/6/2022 8:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Power of Faith”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 17:19-21

 

            Message of the verses:  “19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”

 

            MacArthur continues:  “The Lord was giving the disciples a sample of what their lives would be like once He had returned to heaven, when they could no longer see Him or touch Him or talk with Him in the way they were used to doing.  He was also teaching them persistence.  We do not know how often they tried to cast the demon out of the boy, but at some point they gave up.  When Jesus first sent the disciples out, their success at healing and casting out demons was immediate.  But Jesus had not promised that that would always be the case.  The twelve had to learn that, unlike the Lord’s power, theirs was not inherent in themselves.  It came only from Him, by His divine provision and will.

 

            “It is encouraging to realize that even the apostles, with their unique calling and miraculous gifts, always had to rely on Jesus to minister effectively.  To strengthen their faith and sense of dependence, the Lord sometimes made them wait—just as He often does with believers today.  To strengthen our faith, He may sometimes make us wait a long time for an answer to prayer.  Just as an athlete grows stronger by gradually lifting heavier weights or by running longer distances, so a believer grows stronger in faith by facing even-increasing challenges that expose his own weakness and drive him to the Lord.

 

            “Continuing the lesson on faith, Jesus said, ‘For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.’’

 

            Jesus seems to contradict Himself, first rebuking the disciples for having small faith and then telling them that even the smallest faith can move mountains.  But as He made clear in the parable of the mustard seed, the seed does not represent littleness as such but rather littleness that grows into greatness.  ‘When it is full grown,’ He explained, ‘it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree (Matt. 13:32).  Small faith can accomplish great things only if, like a mustard seed it grows into something greater than it was.  Only when small faith grows into great faith can it move a mountain.

 

            “Mustard seed faith is persistent faith.  It continues to grow and become productive because it never gives up.  It is the sort of faith exercised by the importunate man who kept knocking on his neighbor’s door late at night until he got a response.  ‘I tell you,’ Jesus said, that ‘even though he would not get up and give him anything because he is a his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs’ (Luke 11:8).  Jesus also illustrated mustard seed faith in the parable of the oppressed widow, a parable He gave specifically ‘to show that at all times [the disciples] ought to pray and not to lose heart’ (Luke 18:1).  When the widow would not take no for an answer, the godless, indifferent judge finally gave her ‘legal protection, lest,’ the said, ‘by continually coming she wear me out’ (v-5).  ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge said, ‘Jesus’ went on to explain ‘now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily’ (vv. 6-8).

 

            “It must also be clearly understood that Jesus was not talking about moving a literal mountain.  Neither the apostles nor the Lord Himself ever performed such a feat—nor has anyone else in the nearly 2,000-year history of the church.  That would have been the sort of grand but pointless miracle the scribes and Pharisees expected of the Messiah but which Jesus refused to perform (Matt. 12:38-39).”

 

            Lord willing we will finish this section in our next SD.

 

11/6/2022 8:37 AM

 

 

PT-2 "The Power of Faith" (Matt. 17:19-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/5/2022 10:07 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Power of Faith”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 17:19-21

 

            Message of the verses:  19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20  And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”

 

            In this SD we will begin by discussing what is the obvious answer to the disciples question as to why they could not cast out the demon in the boy, and that obvious answer is "Because of the littleness of your faith.”  Now Jesus not saying that they did not have any faith but because of…littleness of…faith that they were powerless.  They had saving faith, which they could not lose.  They also had trusting faith to some degree, or they would not have attempted to heal the boy.  But what they lacked was sufficient faith to employ the power of Jesus which He had given them.

 

            I have to say a few things before we continue looking at this section which is the last section in this whole section which was entitled “The Power of Faith” which we began on 10-29.  I believe that this could be the most important section that we are looking at now as Jesus is explaining to His disciples the kind of faith that the disciples, and us to will need, and in the case of the disciples when Jesus goes back to heaven.  The sermon that I listened to taught me some great things about faith, and I passed it on to a friend of mine so that he and his wife could listen to it.  They were involved in a very bad motorcycle accident around July 4^th of this year, and the wife is still in the hospital undergoing therapy.  I pray daily for them and I thought that the sermon that goes along with this chapter in MacArthur’s commentary would be some help to them.  The husband is now walking with a cane and able to once again drive.  Their daughter and her husband have kind of put their life on hold as they moved here with their two young children from Alaska to help out her parents.  Their son who lives in Boston has also come here as much as he can to help out. 

 

            I said all of this to say that I have decided to quote a couple of paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary so that we will get the best possible commentary on this section.  It will probably continue tomorrow too.

 

            “Having littleness of…faith was a somewhat typical condition of the disciples.  Soon after Jesus called them into His service, they sat among the crowd on the mountainside whom He charged with being anxious because of their little faith in God to provide for their physical needs (Matt. 6:25-34).  When during the fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee they despaired of their lives, Jesus rebuked them before He rebuked the waves, saying ‘Why are you timid, you men of little faith?’ (8:26). When Peter started to walk on the water but became afraid and began sinking, ‘Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’’ (14:31).  Shortly before healing the demonized boy, Jesus had again charged the disciples with having little faith in not expecting Him to be able to feed the multitude near Magadan (16:8).

 

            “Those incidents illustrate that little faith is the kind of faith that believes in God when you have something in your hand, when His provision is already made.  When things were going well with the disciples and everything seemed under control, they found it easy to trust their Lord.  But as soon as circumstances became uncertain or threatening, their faith withered.  Their faith was like the faith of most believers in all ages.  When they are healthy and have the necessities of life, their faith is great and strong, but when they are in need, their faith is small and gives way to doubt.

 

            “Great faith trusts God when there is nothing in the cupboard to eat and no money to buy food.  Great faith trusts in God when health is gone, work is gone, reputation is gone, or family is gone.  Great faith trusts God while the windstorm is still howling and persecution continues.”

 

            There is more to this and I want to continue to quote some more from MacArthur’s commentary in our next SD, but this is enough to get us all thinking about what kind of faith we have, and what kind we need to have.

 

11/5/2022 10:43 AM

 

 

 

           

PT-1 "The Power of Faith" (Matt. 17:19-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/4/2022 10:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “The Power of Faith”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 17:19-21

 

            Message of the verses:  “19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”

 

            I think that perhaps as we look at these verses that we will learn some things that we did not know before, at least I did when I listened to MacArthur’s sermon on this entire section we have been looking at from Matthew 17:14-21.

 

            I believe that Jesus healed many more people than the gospel records show us, and the ones that we do read about have special meaning for us.  We have talked about how we are coming to the end of our Lord’s ministry on earth as we see even in this chapter and it was the Lord’s desire to spend much time with His disciples in order to train them when He would not be with them.  In this section we know that the Lord was up on the mountain with three of His disciples when the nine other disciples were confronted with this man who had a demon possessed son, so Jesus was not with them.  Yet we also know that there were times when Jesus sent His disciples out to minister about the kingdom of God and He gave them power against demons, and even one time He told them that He saw Satan fall as they were ministering, and now the disciples want to know why they could not cast out the demon that was in this boy when Jesus was not with them.  This is the question that these verses address and I believe that the highlighted portion above gives us the answer, but understanding this answer is what we have to do, and what I hope to do as we look at these verses.

 

            It is clear that Jesus’ purpose in the miracle of healing this boy went beyond the healing, although this was very important, especially to the boy and his father.  This healing also brought glory to God as all of His healings did.  But for the disciples the important lesson of the even was yet to be learned, learned for them as well as for us.

 

            Now because they could not cast this demon out of the boy it is no surprise that the disciples wanted to talk to Jesus privately, in the house as Mark tells us in 9:28 “When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?’”  It is no doubt that the disciples were embarrassed that they could not do this and wanted to know why.  They may have wondered why Jesus could do this in only a word, but they spent a lot of time trying and failed to do it.  They may have asked Jesus something like “You commissioned and empowered us to heal and to cast out demons, and we have been successful before.  Why did we fail this time?”  I think that it is good for the disciples to realize that they failed and wanted to learn why they had failed, and they were going to the right Person to find out why.  MacArthur adds “They probably invoked the Lord’s name, commanded the demon to leave, and awaited his departure.  But this time nothing happened.”

            I am going to stop here and we will begin to look at the reason why they failed in our next SD.  I don’t want to start something I don’t have time to finish.

 

11/4/2022 11:11 AM

PT-3 "The Perversion of the Faithless" (Matt. 17:17-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/3/2022 9:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Perversion of the Faithless”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 17:17-18

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.”

 

            We begin this SD by talking about the fact that the thrill-seeking crowds followed Jesus for the personal benefit of His healing and out of curiosity.  I can’t help but say this is at the heart of the health and wealth gospel messages going around the world today.  Now others who followed Him were the gloating Jewish leaders and they did it in order to convict Him of a capital crime. This is kind of like what the democratic press does as they follow the conservative candidates waiting for what they feel is a mistake so that they can pounce on them.  I guess the world hasn’t changed much. The truth is that His disciples knew that Jesus was the Messiah as seen in Matthew 16:16, they were frequently confused about the meaning of His teaching and His work.

 

            We know that Jesus would not vary from His divine mission nor succumb to Satan’s temptation to despair.  Jesus was on earth to do His Father’s business from which nothing would deter Him.  He therefore said to the father, “Bring him to Me.”

 

            When Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him,” because he had no choice in doing that, however Mark and Luke tell us that the demon made a last ditch try to destroy the boy, as some thought that the boy was dead after the demon was through with him.  However Jesus said he was ok and he got up in his right mind, healed by Jesus, as the demon was gone.

 

            The demon knew that his efforts were hopeless, because, like the demon who tormented the man of Garasen (Mark 5:7) and the one who attacked the seven sons of Seeva (Acts 19:15), he recognized the divine identity of Jesus.  He was compelled to obey the Son of God.

 

            MacArthur concludes:  “Although Jesus already had successfully cast out countless demons (see Matt. 4:24; 8:16; 32, 9:33; 12:22), Luke reports that on this occasion, the crowds ‘were all amazed at the greatness of God’ (Luke 9:43).  ‘Greatness’ is from megaleiotes, which refers to great splendor or magnificence. It is the word used by Peter to describe the divine majesty of which he, James, and John were eyewitnesses at the transfiguration.  It was perhaps with that glory in mind that Luke here used the term to describe the crowd’s amazement.  Unknowingly, they to, had had a small glimpse of the kind of majesty and splendor the Lord would reveal at His second coming.”

 

11/3/2022 9:48 AM

PT-1 "The Perversion of the Faithless" (Matt. 17:17-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/2/2022 9:30 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Perversion of the Faithless”

 

My Worship Time                                                                           Reference:  Matthew 17:17-18

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.”

 

            John MacArthur begins this section with “The disciples’ faithless impotence (weakness) not only grieved the boy’s father but Jesus as well.  Speaking to the disciples and to the multitude rather than to the man who had just confronted Him, Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?”

 

            We can see something in our Lord here which gives a rare glimpse into the depts. of His divine heart and soul.  Jesus was used to giving orders in eternity past to angels and they would respond without delay, and now He is grieved at the blindness and faithlessness of God’s people Israel, especially His disciples, the ones He had personally chosen, and the ones who He had taught and endowed with unique power and authority.

 

            We can see from the gospel readings that the entire generation of Jews was faithless, as they represented on this occasion by the multitude, the disciples, and the self-righteous scribes as they were there to trap and to discredit the Lord if they had the opportunity.  They were like the liberal media today who are ready to pounce on a conservative person either running for office or in office.  Now according to the gospel of Mark in 9:24 we read that even the father’s faith was un-complete as he said “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

 

            We read that not only were the people unbelieving but perverted.  MacArthur writes: Perverted is from diastrepho, which has the basic idea of twisting or bending out of shape.  The term was frequently used to describe a piece of pottery that a careless craftsman hand misshaped or that had somehow become distorted before being fired in the oven.”

 

            Jesus was speaking here not about the fact that many of his listeners were morally perverted, but most of them were primarily of spiritual perversion that is inevitable in those who are unbelieving.  Any person who does not genuinely trust God cannot escape having a distorted view of Him and His will.

 

            Jesus goes on to say “how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you?”  He is saying this perhaps as much to Himself as to them, as no doubt He was becoming increasingly anxious to return to His heavenly Father, with whom He had just experienced a unique time while on the mountain.  In our Lord humanness He must have been tempted to doubt whether His soon-coming suffering and death would be worthwhile.  Perhaps Satan was tempting Jesus by telling Him that if they don’t trust You while You are with them how do You expect them to trust You after You have returned to heaven.  Did our Lord have a low moment here?  It seems that perhaps He did, for after all He was human.

 

            Lord willing we will complete this section in our next day.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  If the truth is that Jesus was a bit down in this section then I suppose that I have the right to be down too.  Life at times is pretty difficult and I think that I need a real break from the normal and get some time alone with the Lord in a different environment to get my perspective back on the things of the Lord that I am missing because of not having a break for a long time.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I believe that the Lord trusted in the Holy Spirit who was guiding Him throughout His entire ministry to get Him back on line with the things that He knew He had to do, as perhaps the coming cross was on His mind, something that had to be so very difficult on Him.  I must trust that the Spirit of God will get me back on track too.

 

11/2/2022 10:05 AM   

 

 

The Powerlessness of the Followers (Matt. 17:16)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2022 10:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  “The Powerlessness of the Followers” 

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 17:16

 

            Message of the verses:  “And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him” (17:16).

 

            The father of the boy who is demon possessed brought him to the disciples of Jesus while Jesus was on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and they could not cure him.

 

            We can take a look at the previous chapter from different gospel accounts and find out that Jesus had given power to do a number of things as He sent out the disciples on what we may call missions trips, short term as they may be.  The point is that the power that he had given to them included casting out demons, and so one wonders why it is that they were not able to cast out the demon of this boy.  I remember one of the times when the disciples came back after one of the times that Jesus sent them out and He told them that He saw Satan falling from the sky, so they certainly had the power at that time but the question is what happened to it here?

 

            John MacArthur writes “The failure now was not due to the fact that Jesus was not with them, because He was not with them on those earlier occasions, either.  They still had Jesus’ promise and His power, yet they could not cure the boy.  The explanation for their failure is therefore obvious.  They failed to appropriate the power available to them.”

 

            We can see that the father had increasing frustration and anguish as he was understandably despaired of help from the disciples and turned to Jesus for help.

 

            What happened here has happened countless times throughout the history of the church, that is the faithlessness, weakness, and indifference of Christians has caused many seeking unbelievers to despair of help from God’s people.  Sometimes, like the father in this story, they turn to the Lord Himself, and that is the thing to do as He will always listen.

 

11/1/2022 11:04 AM