Sunday Sermon, August 2, 2026 - The Gospel of Mark 9:14-29 The Unclean Spirit

Jesus, Peter, James and John return to the rest of the disciples from the mountain where the transfiguration had taken place. Let’s remember that not all the disciples went on this trip, they had stayed behind still doing the ministry work that Jesus had called them to do. That’s right, the boss has gone away, you are still expected to do the same work that you did when the boss was with you. But when they get back do they find them doing the work of the ministry?

Well, sort of.

Mark 9:14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.

Our Roman reader would not find this strange at all, open public discussions was a hallmark of the Roman people, one could normally see crowds of people gathering around two individuals having a discussion, and others in the crowd peppering the two with questions to either support or challenge one of the speakers. This is an age old practice, free and open speech at its best.

As many of you know I spend a lot of time online having theological discussions with Mormons, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some atheist. I am practicing that which was an age old thing, arguing. I have been practicing this trade my entire life. My mother would yell from the other room for me and my siblings to stop arguing, we would inform her that we were not arguing, just have a loud discussion. My grandmother remarked during one of these discussions with my sister, that I was going to a lawyer or a Baptist preacher, a remarkable prophecy 50 years in the making. Nevertheless, we see from the scriptures that the art of argumentation is very old, and even this personal practice continues to this day. In London there is a park that is known as Speakers Corner. Here there are open discussions and debates between many groups and many perspectives, from political to religious in nature. Something that is sadly in danger in the UK, as the current government has sought to suppress certain types of speech, namely those of a Christian or conservative slant. Our Speakers Corner now happens mostly online here in the US, on live YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook, and my personal fav, Space on X. These discussions are necessary, and should not be discouraged but encouraged, because we see what Jesus says.

Mark 9:15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.

Mark 9:16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”

Jesus does not rebuke His disciples, He asked with is the argument about, Jesus wants to know what they are talking about, and He most likely wants to involve himself in the discussion. This notion that Jesus did not participate in open discussion with folks is utter nonsense. Jesus spent a lot of time in discussion with the Jewish leadership, it is in these open forms, that most of His teachings take place, and we will see this manifest more and more as he continues to interact with the Pharisees and the scribes.

 

 

This is why we see Paul, Peter and Jude talk about defending and contending for the faith, because this what Jesus did. If you are following Jesus, then part of following Him is to defend what He has taught. There are numerous people and groups out there that twist what Jesus said and we as followers of Chris are obligated not to allow their misinterpretation, or their right-out manipulations stand. Allowing someone to believe something that is not true is not loving. Being silent is not an option, and if you think that being quiet is the preferable option, you will find yourself being silenced by compulsion. Any freedom not used is soon lost.

Mark 9:17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.

Mark 9:18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”

While this could have been the subject of the discussion, most likely it is not. This man was waiting in the crowd for Jesus to return. While He was gone, the man had brought His son to see Jesus, and only finding the 9 disciples, the man tells them the story of the son, and then the disciples try to take it upon themselves to cast out the demon. This would not have been outside of their frame of authority, let’s remember that Jesus had sent them out before to do this work, and they had been successful. However, in this case they were not, and we will discover the reason for that as we continue reading.

Mark 9:19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Jesus knows why they have failed, and is not disciples’ fault, but a faithless generation a people who cannot believe that something can be done by people like themselves. Here again we see the very human side of Jesus, an element of frustration.

Mark 9:20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

The demonic spirit knows that its time is up and is not willing to leave without causing harm. Let us remember that Satan and his demons hate humanity for the simple reason that we can be redeemed and they cannot. Their fate is sealed, so their mission is to harm as man humans as possible and to drag as many down with them into the pit as possible.

Are there people walking among us today that are like this son? Oh yes, we often label them as mentally ill, and in many cases that is true, there is a fine line between a person who is truly mentally ill and a person who demonic. The mentally ill at times can be reasoned with, the demonic cannot, there is no reasoning with the demonic, it must be removed, by the way Jesus gives us the method at the end for the removing of such demonic influences.

 

 

Mark 9:21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.

Mark 9:22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

I hope you can read the helplessness here that the man is feeling. Let’s remember our Roman reader, he can see that this man is feeling truly hopeless, he has hit rock bottom. It takes us to hit rock bottom for us to admit that we like this man need Jesus. Not only has this man run out of hope he has run out of faith.

Yet notice what Jesus says.

Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

Jesus says to the man, “if you can”. Folks are the biggest obstacle to overcoming spiritual attacks is ourselves. It is our negative attitude, it is a defeatist attitude, well there is no reason to try, it is what is.

In the Batman trilogy the first movie established a theme that repeats itself over and over again. In the first movie, Bruce Wayne as a young boy falls down an old shaft while running from a friend that he has taken something from her. When his father comes to rescue him, he makes this remark, “Why do we fall down? So that we can learn to get back up again.” Why do you go through trials, why obstacles come forth in your life, why do terrible things happen, and you do not understand? So that you can learn that God has given you the ability, He has given you the faith to get back up again, to face it. You have a choice, you can lay down and give up and wait to die, or you can get up and live, take up your cross, get back into the fight. Look it is not that God has told you that it is all on you, it is not, He has promised to be with you, but He wants to see you get up, not to lay down. Quitting and giving up is not an option.

But there is another level to be added to this. Continuing to do the same thing over and over and seeing that it does not work, is no better than doing nothing, because you continue to do the same thing over and over because you are unwilling to try something new or different. The most intellectually laziest thing you can say is “well this is the way we have always done it”. Is it working? No? Well then, you are going to need to do something else. The disciples had tried to cast out the demon from the son and when it did not work, I am sure they just keep repeating what they did, and it just built up the frustration that nothing will work, well yeah something will work, you just have to be willing to try it.

Jesus says, if you can, ALL things, not some things, not most thing, but all things are possible for one who believes.

And this is connected to what I just said, all things are possible, but it might not be possible in the way you want to do it. See the other thing is that we have to be willing to accept that there are other possibilities of success that we might not be able to or willing to accept. When you define success in your narrow view then you will not be successful in your opinion, God says, look at the big picture, look at the entire spectrum do not get caught up in your keyhole myopic view.

Mark 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

See the cry of hopelessness, I believe, what does he believe? That his child is doomed to be in this state until dies, that is what he truly believes, because Jesus has said to him, you can do this you just do not believe, and the father is like my belief is based on what I see and what I feel. Personal experience you know that thing that people lift up today as the most important element of life, well my experience, my view, that type of thinking damns you to living your life through your own subjective thoughts, it is deadly and it is what this man is suffering from, what he believes, and so he cries to Jesus, what? Help my unbelief, help me believe in the right thing, help me believe that my son can be free of this torment, help me believe in the power of God to overcome all things, help me see past this moment in time. The man is stuck in this moment in time, it is just always going to be this way, it will never change, he will always be this way, I will never escape this. He is trying out to Jesus help me to believe that this can change.

Mark 9:25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”

Here comes the people who are there for the show, they start to gather around hearing the father crying out, the crowd knows that Jesus is going to help. There is one thing that crowd has learned about Jesus is that no matter what He has compassion for the people, for the hurting soul, so when the father cries out to Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief, they know that Jesus is about to do something supernatural and they want to witness it. Our Roman reader very much relates to this, the crowd the mob if you will be driven by raw emotions, and that emotion from this father is a call and a demand for action in their eyes, so they come running to see Jesus do His thing.

Mark 9:26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.”

As stated, before the demon will not go quietly, it puts on a show before finally leaving as ordered. The ordeal is such that finally being free of the demon, the boy does not know how to act, he lies there thinking, is it truly gone, am I free truly. He lays there not wanting to move in free that it has not left but is just waiting for him to try to move and then coming on again.

Mark 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

Mark 9:28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

Mark 9:29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

Our most powerful weapon is all too often left in the holster. Prayer

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16

James confirms that which Jesus is telling us here, that the power we have to overcome the demonic is prayer, continuous prayer, a prayer of confession of our own sins, a prayer that others will confess of their sins and be healed, a prayer for the power of God to be manifested in the lives of others, and the prayer for us to have the courage to not only pray for those lost and under the delusion of Satan, but that we would have the courage to break free of our fears. Prayer is the powerful weapon, one that the disciples and the father did not bother to us, nor did they consider let us not neglect that power given to us by God. When Jesus said we can and all things are possible if we believe in that power of prayer.

Darin Bracy is the pastor at Yorktown Baptist Church in Yorktown Virginia. He is a graduate of Veritas Baptist College with a BA in Ministry and a minor in History. He has a wife Stacy, two daughters, Ashlynne and her husband Justin, their daughter Harper Darin's other daughter Aftyn, and her two dogs, Eddie and Lulubelle.

You can reach Darin at his email address, Darinbracy@gmail.com and you can see his video content on YouTube – Basic Baptist Guy