Mark 9: Don't Be an Unbelieving Generation

Introduction

The youth service at Koinonia Church in Rome starts with a game: a "gullibility quiz." True or false? A Japanese island has more rabbits than people. The Great Wall of China can be seen from the Moon with the naked eye. Octopuses have three hearts. Whoever gets the most answers wrong is named "gullible of the day."

When the game is over, Alessandro Mungai draws out the lesson: "We are often so gullible, so easily influenced by what we are told, and so unbelieving when it comes to what God wants to say to us and to show through us." He then opens Mark 9:14-28, the story of a father who brings his son, tormented by a mute spirit, to Jesus.

From it he draws three attitudes of the unbeliever to turn away from, because you can attend church and still be unbelieving in certain areas of life.

Message outline

1. A verse to pin: will he find faith on the earth?

Before getting into the story, the preacher suggests "pinning" a verse in your mind, like a message on WhatsApp: "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).
Every time he reads these words, he feels an urgent inner need to do something for the Lord. Jesus will return, and he wants to be found ready.
"We fool ourselves into thinking we are masters of our lives and we make long-term plans," yet the Lord could return tonight, tomorrow, in five or ten years. Only God knows.
Beyond being ready, we have a duty to bring others with us and to speak about God to as many people as possible. For that, we cannot be an unbelieving generation, but a generation that declares: "I believe."
He quotes Jeremy Camp's song There Will Be a Day: one day there will be no more tears, no more fear, no more burdens. What touches him most is the "until": until that day, we will hold on to you.

2. The story: a crowd, scribes, disciples and a father

There is the crowd that follows Jesus. There are the scribes, charged with copying the law and the prophets, who from studying the Scriptures so much believed they knew more than the Messiah and only sought to accuse him.
There are the disciples, who failed to set the boy free. They were probably mocked and bitter. Jesus had given them authority, yet they had not understood that nothing happened because of their own merits.
And finally there are the father and his son, the true protagonists. The Bible does not say the boy's age, the cause of his condition, or whether he had a mother. The preacher notes that this is his own assumption, but he imagines this father carrying the burden alone.
Matthew also describes symptoms close to epileptic seizures. "That does not mean that people who suffer from epilepsy today are possessed. Let's be very clear."
The detail of the mute spirit matters: according to Jewish traditions, you had to know a spirit's name to drive it out. How do you set free a child who cannot speak?

3. The unbeliever makes God the last resort

This father had probably tried everything before coming. "People very often look for human, earthly solutions before coming to God."
Faced with a problem, we first talk to our parents, our friends, our spouse, then to professionals. Some even go to a fake holy man. And when there is nothing left to lose, we turn to God, at the last minute.
The football picture: a coach does not keep his best player for the last four minutes, he puts him on from the start. We, though, say to the Lord: "Come on the pitch, but I'm giving you five minutes to solve my whole problem."
The preacher does not reject parents, friends, spouses or doctors: "When I'm sick, I go to the doctor." But none of that should come before the Lord. "He cannot be a substitute, he has to be a starter in our life."
There are wounds that only God heals: for the wounds of the soul, no doctor, no friend, no professional can heal or save a person. Only Jesus can.
In the middle of the confusion, Jesus arrives. He does not need to introduce himself, to understand the problem, or to know the name of a demon. He crosses the crowd and sets the boy free. He wants to do the same with the crowd of doubts and earthly solutions crowding your mind.

4. The unbeliever lacks trust

Many people say they believe in God, often sincerely. But that statement is often followed by a "but": "Why is there so much evil in the world?", "If God exists, why don't I feel him?" Translated, that is a lack of trust.
Philip tells Nathanael that he has found the one Moses wrote about. Nathanael answers: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46). Perhaps he expected a Messiah from a big city, with an army.
Philip does not tell him "do as you like." He says: "Come and see." Jesus says he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, and Nathanael confesses: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God!"
We sometimes resemble the Nathanael of the beginning: "Yes, God exists, but what good can he really do in my life? I've been waiting for an answer for a long time."
That is what the father felt: "But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us" (Mark 9:22). Jesus answers him about that "if you can": all things are possible for the one who believes (Mark 9:23).
God is almighty, he knows everything, he knew you from your mother's womb, he knows the number of hairs on your head. What you need to say to him is not "if you can" but "if you will." That does not mean he will necessarily say yes, but he is able to do it.
The father cries out: "I believe. Help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). It is after this declaration of faith that Jesus sets the boy free. "Where no one had been able to, the Lord did it."

5. The unbeliever knows neither what to do nor how to do it

The scribes fell silent, and the father and his son saw their lives change forever. That leaves the disciples, downcast. Instead of rejoicing over the miracle, they brood over the one that did not happen through them. Perhaps they had grown a little too used to miracles.
They ask: "Why couldn't we cast it out?" (Mark 9:28). Jesus answers that this kind can only come out through prayer (Mark 9:29).
The disciples thought they could use a magic formula. But prayer draws you close to God's heart, brings you into agreement with him and teaches you to depend on him. "I pray because Jesus prayed," and he prayed every day.
The Bible says: "Pray without ceasing" and "Don't quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:17, 19). Jesus also tells us to keep asking, seeking and knocking (Luke 11:9).
We want everything right now, and when the answer is slow in coming, we get angry with God and stay unbelieving. The Lord has often answered the preacher within minutes, sometimes instantly, but some answers take perseverance, time and effort.
It is not that God cannot answer in two seconds: it is that in the waiting, we grow. The more time you spend in prayer and in the Bible, the more your faith grows, and you will no longer be that little Christian who falls at the slightest gust of wind.

6. Gethsemane: praying until you are transformed

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus was in Gethsemane. He did not do autogenic training or repeat to himself in front of a mirror "you're strong, you're great," as some theories suggest today.
He prayed so intensely that "his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground" (Luke 22:44). He came out of that garden more determined than before, because he had been in communion with the Father.
That is the miracle God can do in your life: if you spend genuine time with him, even knocking for a long time, you will come out transformed.
The message ends with a time of prayer: opening your heart to Jesus where you have no hope left, no strength left, where you have closed the door saying "even you can't do anything anymore." "You are not alone. The Lord wants to drive out this whole crowd of doubts in your mind."

Key takeaways

The Lord should not be your last resort but your first: a starter, not a substitute you send on in the last five minutes.
Believing that God exists is not enough; unbelief is the lack of trust hiding behind the "yes, but."
Stop saying "if you can" to God: he can. Say to him "if you will."
"I believe. Help my unbelief!" is a prayer anyone can pray when they doubt.
Some answers come only through persevering prayer, and it is in the waiting that faith grows.

Personal application

Facing your current problem, where have you put the Lord: on the pitch from the start or on the bench?
Is there a "yes, but" attached to your faith in God these days?
In what situation have you prayed "if you can"? How could you rephrase it as "if you will"?
Have you stopped knocking at a door because the answer was slow in coming?
What concrete time can you give this week to prayer and Bible reading?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "I believe. Help my unbelief!" mean?

It is the cry of the boy's father in Mark 9:24. For Alessandro Mungai, it is the declaration of faith anyone can make when they doubt God's intervention: admitting your unbelief and asking the Lord to help you stop doubting what he can do.

Why say "if you will" to God rather than "if you can"?

Because God is almighty: he has no difficulty acting. The question is therefore not whether he can, but whether he will. The preacher stresses that this does not mean God will necessarily say yes to everything you ask, but that he is able to do it.

Why couldn't the disciples drive out the spirit in Mark 9?

Jesus tells them that this kind can only come out through prayer (Mark 9:29). According to Alessandro Mungai, the disciples had not understood that miracles do not come from their merits or from a formula, but from close communion with the Father, which draws you near to God's heart and teaches you to depend on him.