Gleans from Monday Bible Study with Pastor (Dr) W.F Kumuyi.
DLBC Old Ikeja
25th November 2019
Study 34 – THE POSSIBILITIES OF UNWAVERING FAITH IN CHRIST
Text – Mark 9:9-29
Last week we studied the Lord’s Transfiguration as Moses and Elijah appeared to have fellowship with Christ. This vision and revelation took Peter by surprise that he wanted to remain in the mount of Transfiguration with the Lord permanently, until the voice from the Father came to them to hear the Lord Jesus Christ. What we are studying today is what happened after they came back from the mount. The remaining nine disciples had been confronted with a problem; a man brought to them his son with demonic problem, but they could not solve the problem. Jesus asked the man to bring the child, and gave him the assurance, “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). {This is the key verse in this Study today. Heaven and earth will pass away but His word shall not pass away.} This man was not a believer, yet Jesus told him if he could believe, all things are possible. For you, if you can believe, all things – in every area of your life, family, profession, in your Christian life to rise up, walk with power and confidence and be victorious – all things are possible. When you come to the Lord, Christ enters into you, and with a Christ in-dwelt, Spirit-filled, God in-dwelt, and the word inspired man, all things are possible. As you believe tonight all things are possible. You know, everything we do in life, we started at zero level – writing, speaking, reading, driving, but as we learn and practice, we become experts. The same with our faith; we started at zero level, but with learning and practising, our faith grows and develops to become great, activating faith, and that faith will work in every life in Jesus’ name. As you have unwavering faith in the taxi driver, a stra to take you to your destination, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus, mighty and extraordinary tells us all things are possible.He has never failed. Have faith in the Lord and great possibilities we shall have. I have faith.
3 points:
Point 1. THE PROPHECY AND THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF HIS SUFFERING
Mark 9:9-14; Matthew 17:10-12; Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:15-17; Acts 2:23-24; 4:25-28; Psalms 22:1,6-8,16-18; Isaiah 53:1-12; Luke 24:25-27,44-46; Acts 26:22-23
Jesus spoke a lot about His suffering, death and His resurrection. He had also said that some will not taste death until they saw Him in His glory and power. In fulfilment, Peter, James and John had the privilege. “And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead” (Mark 9:9). It was the time of His humiliation, suffering and going to the cross, and He did not want that glory, splendour and majesty to be revealed to everyone, and for them to want to forcefully make Him king. The revelation was for the disciples’ assurance, when later they preach the gospel, that they were not following cunningly devised fable. So, He warned them not to tell any man. “And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean” (Mark 9:10). They should have understood because He had told them of His betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection. They were not even thinking about His death, not to talk of His resurrection. “And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must come first? And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him” (Mark 9:1-13). Here is the prophesy, prediction and foreknowledge of His sufferings. They later understood that Elias here was John the Baptist. Matthew’s Gospel puts it this way, “And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. (Matthew 17:10-11). The question is, why did the Scribes, the teachers of the law and leaders in Israel say Elijah must come first, and after him there will be the revelation of the Son of God? Where did they get the idea from? “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). Here is the Almighty God talking of events of what will happen, and this came before the first coming, but the children of Israel confused the First Coming for the Second Coming. The First Coming was for the Messiah to suffer and die, make the sacrifice for our sins and give everybody the opportunity for salvation. After that will be the Church Age, then the Rapture, then The Great Tribulation, and then the Second Coming. There are similarities between the First and Second coming. “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” referred to the Second Coming, but the disciples and the scribes did not understand and were putting the coming of that Elijah to the First Coming. Their misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the prophecy made them to miss the benefits of His First Coming. The Lord will clear every confusion from your heart in Jesus’ name. Someone like Elijah will come before the First Coming, “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). This was talking about John the Baptist. But the Scribes did not understand the First and Second Coming of Christ, so they did all those things to John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. The suffering of Christ was not accidental but according to the foreknowledge of God, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). So understand that nothing happened to Christ by accident and nothing took Him by surprise. It was written concerning Him, that He would suffer, make sacrifice for the salvation of the whole of humanity, His betrayal, death, resurrection; and they were fulfilled according to prophecies and God’s knowledge, even to the minutest details. But why the suffering, betrayal and death?
(i) He came to reverse the Fall of man. Everything we lost by Adam’s fall, Christ came to restore. Everything you lost in Adam restoration will come; reversal of all the works of the evil in your life in Jesus’ name.
(ii) He came to save. To make an end of sin. He will cleanse and forgive your sins as you come to Him tonight.
(iii) He came to sanctify, to make us holy and redeem all Israel from all their sin.
(iv) He came to heal, and if you are sick, healing has come tonight. He bore all our shame and took away our sicknesses
(v) He came to deliver from the power of the devil and evil spirit. He came to deliver from every known affliction.
(vi) He came to empower us. He will put power, victory, confidence and courage in us
(vii) He came to make us fit for Heaven. Heaven is a prepared place, and the Lord will prepare you for Heaven in Jesus’ name.
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalms 22:16). That’s the Crucifixion of Christ, and this did not happen to David who wrote the Psalms but to the Son of David. And the benefits of His suffering are yours in Jesus’ name. The same prophet Isaiah that predicted the forerunner, John the Baptist, also predicted the First Coming of Christ, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5). This has happened, and you will see it in Jesus’ name. He came to bear all our iniquity (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus bore the pain and punishment of your sins. Because He died and shed His blood, my life is justified. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). The Suffering will come before the Glory, the Sacrifice before the manifestation of His Sovereignty. When He opens our eyes, we will not be in the dark again, we will have understanding of our salvation, sanctification, purity and the provision of our every need in Him (Luke 22:44-45). “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22-23). Moses and all the prophets prophesied about the sufferings and death of Christ. Nothing happened to Christ by accident; and when you come to Him and become a new creature, nothing in your life comes by surprise. The Lord knows about you; your name is in the Book of Life. He has written good things concerning you and they will be fulfilled in Jesus’ name.