Who is Jesus? Part 24 - - Jesus is Transfigured and Delivers a Possessed Boy

 

Who is Jesus? Part 24 - - Jesus is Transfigured and Delivers a Possessed Boy

Our message today is from Mark chapter 9. Jesus was speaking to his disciples and he said to them, “Of a truth, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” In six days they would see something wonderful.

After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain. And he was transfigured or changed before them,  and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.  And there appeared him, Elijah and Moses, as they were talking with Jesus.  And Peter not knowing what else to say, declared to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three temples, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, as quick at it happened, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them but only Jesus.   And they were terrified at what they had seen and heard.   

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  So they kept the matter to themselves, but they were puzzled and wondered what this rising from the dead might mean. 

As they descended from the mountain and came to the other disciples, they saw a great crowd, and scribes arguing with them.  And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Jesus, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.  And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with the scribes?” And a man from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him to be mute.  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 out the spirit, and they were not able.”   And Jesus answered them; “Bring him to me.”  

So they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw Jesus, immediately it convulsed the young boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.  And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.  Often it has thrown him into fire and into water, to destroy him; But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can believe, All things are possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the father of the child cried out saying, “I believe; help my unbelief!”  And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You voiceless and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”  And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, the spirit came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took the boy by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.  

When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast the spirit out?”  And Jesus said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And Jesus was privately teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”  But they did not understand the saying. Jesus was desiring to prepare his disciples for his death, burial and resurrection, but their spiritual understanding was darkened and they failed to realize the truth in what Jesus was telling them.

How often do we find ourselves unwilling to listen and understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to us? May we open our spiritual ears to listen and then with our hearts be ready and willing to obey God's plan of the day, for the coming weeks, for our life - - and possibly be willing to accept a change coming in the new future?