Sermon for Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

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[Machine transcription]

In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Dear Saints, two things to reflect on this morning from the text.
The first is this, the devil really hates you.
And the second is that Jesus loves to hear this prayer,
I believe, Lord help my unbelief.
In fact, I think that’s probably the reason why Mark gives us this account
and the Holy Spirit brings it to us this morning with such detail
you know, that we would rejoice, that we who are praying that prayer constantly, Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief, would know that it is pleasing to the Lord, that He hears
it and answers it.
But first, that the devil hates you.
I think it’s good just to be reminded, especially as we see the horror of the situation that
unfolds in the gospel lesson, as Jesus is with James and Peter and John, and they’re
up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in the meantime, this father has brought his
son to the disciples to see if they can help him and rescue him from the demon that’s
troubling him, and the condition is terrible.
I was just�
Well, I�
Maybe I�
I thought this morning this question, which is kind of strange.
I was thinking, I wonder if I’ve ever had an encounter with this particular demon that
was troubling this boy.
I mean, he’s somewhere now.
I don’t know if he’s hanging around here or on the other side of the world or if in
my own life I’ve ever had interactions with this particular demon who was causing so much
trouble to this boy, mute and deaf, and was murderous and violent, trying to destroy him.
You just think that this boy would have been there and he would have had all over his body
the scars from the burns, where the demon had thrown him into the fire, and his father
had to pull him out, and to see him�
I mean these burns are some of the most painful things that we can experience, and yet he’s
mute, and so this silent cry of pain and agony that this boy would have had from this torture.
And then the father, who would have shuddered as he was explaining to Jesus that oftentimes
Oftentimes, not only had the demon thrown him into the fire to destroy him, but also
thrown him into water, and as the father would have remembered having to pull his son up
out of the river, out of the� out of the well where the devil had thrown him, and had
to rescue him from drowning, and I� the trauma of the father who would� oftentimes
he’s thrown him into fire and into water, but couldâ�¦ if you could do something, please
do it.
Now, this is the� this is the misery� okay, this is maybe the point here, this.
This is the misery that the devil wants to bring to you and to me.
He does not want us to be happy and free.
That’s what he starts out.
I mean, that’s how he starts his lies.
The devil always is presenting himself to us as a friend, like he did to Adam and Eve
in the garden.
Did God really say, God knows you’re not surely going to die?
And this is how it starts for us when the devil is planting these seeds of temptation
and rebellion and pride and unbelief.
When he’s planting those seeds into our own mind, he’s always doing it as a friend.
A God who’s so old-fashioned doesn’t want you to think like that or act like that or
do that, but I want you to be your authentic self or whatever.
Who knows the lies that the devil tells?
He always presents himselfâ�¦ the devil always presents himself as if he’s the one who’s
setting us free.
The best picture�
I think I probably told you, the best picture I can think of for this is like you’re
in the Old West and you’re walking by the jail, you know, and the devil’s in jail
and he says, hey, you ought to come in here with me where we do whatever we want.
Out there the sheriff’s always after you, but in here we just do whatever.
honor, so that the devil is always presenting to us bondage in the form of freedom, slavery
covered up with the idea of license, enmity that looks like friendship.
But make no doubt that if the devil could just throw you in the fire or drown you in
the water, he would do it.
He’s not pleased â�� this is how Luther says it in the large catechism â�� he’s
not pleased that we could sit at a table and eat a scrap of bread in peace.
So let us be absolutely confident on this, that the devil hates you, that the demons
hate you, that they come to you not to give you life and freedom and joy and whatever,
they come to kill and steal and destroy.
And let this be also for us, as we think about it now, to bring this clarity on all the things
that the devil is tempting us to do, or to think, or to reject, or to change, or to whatever,
and let us know that he is trying to destroy us like he was after this boy and this man
and his family and all of humanity from the beginning.
But the Lord comes to save.
The Lord comes to deliver.
The Lord comes to bring life and hope and peace and light, and He comes to deliver us
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in His Son.
The Lord Jesus comes with healing in His wings to give us all that we need for this life
and the life to come.
The Lord comes to overthrow the works of the devil, to bring them to nothing, to rescue
and to deliver, just like He did for this boy, also for us.
Now here’s this desperate father who knows that everything that he’s tried has failed,
world.
And here’s the desperate disciples who even though they, when they were sent out earlier,
were able to rescue people from the demons, now they can do nothing to deliver this boy.
And here’s the desperate crowd and even the desperate scribes who come to Jesus and
Jesus says, be gone to the demon, be gone, and do not return.
And from that point on, this young man is free and delivered and sound.
He can speak.
He can hear.
He can praise his Maker and Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we’ll meet him.
I have no doubt that you and I will meet this boy and his father and their family one day
in the resurrection, and they’ll tell us about this event.
But here’s the main thing, the main drama, why Mark gives us all these little details
is because the man in such a desperate state has described to Jesus how it is with his
son, and he says, if you can do anything, do it.
And Jesus says, if, if all things are possible to him who believed, and now here’s the point,
the man says, I believe, help my unbelief.
Now, if you were standing there,
okay, let me tell you that again.
If I was standing there, you would probably be nicer than me
but if I was standing there, I’d say,
well, which is it, guy?
Do you believe or do you unbelieve?
Do you trust that Jesus can rescue or do you not?
You can’t be so wishy-washy.
You gotta come down on one side or the other
prayer. But Jesus does not say that. Jesus commands the demon to leave. Jesus blesses
the man. Jesus answers his prayer. And Jesus is telling him and you and I that this is
a prayer that he loves to hear. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. In fact, this is the cry
of every Christian. Philip Melanchthon, you remember Philip Melanchthon, who wrote this
little treatise against the power and primacy of the Pope, and in it he has this little
line.
It’s almost a throwaway line, but it’s one of the most profound theological insights
that I think I’ve ever read.
He says that true worship is this.
True worship is faith fighting against despair, faith fighting against despair, trust fighting
against unbelief, clinging to God’s promise, fighting against doubting God’s promise.
us.
And this is not something that the Lord despises, but something that the Lord loves, that He’s
called all of us and given all of us faith so that we trust His Word and we believe His
promises, but we’re being bombarded moment by moment in the weakness of our flesh and
the unbelief of the world and the assaults of the devil to doubt those words and to let
go of those promises.
And so we come every day, every morning to the Lord and every week to this place and
pray the same prayer, Lord I believe, help my unbelief, and the Lord loves to hear
it and he answers that prayer and he does help your unbelief by his Word and
Spirit strengthening you to trust in his promise and his love, his mercy, and his
gifts. So we, with great confidence, worship God in this way, with this man
and his distressed son. We cry out, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. And the Lord
Lord Jesus smiles on you, and He forgives you your sins, and He strengthens your faith,
and He promises to be with you in this life until He rescues us from all the evils of
this life and brings us into the life to come.
May God grant us the same confidence, this same joy, and this same peace through Christ
Christ our Lord.
Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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