Teachings and Preachings- Mark 9: College and Careers (Faith)

Just as an intro I started going to a bible study for young adults in the college or early career phase of life (hence the name ;). I would encourage you to read Mark 9 before reading my notes, but if you need some quick encouragement keep in mind that in Mark 9 Jesus casts a demon out of a boy after His disciples were not able to.

-Faith alone is not powerful. God is powerful. Faith in God's power is powerful.

- Satan's power and the use of demons were much more active and visible during this time because the son of God was on the Earth. Now Satan has nothing to gain by blowing his cover; he can do his best work by disguising, bringing error into the church, and making small changes to ruin Christians. We do still see demon possession, but it is not nearly as commonplace today as it was then.

- As the boy's father is asking if Jesus can heal his son, he cares enough to ask how long the boy has been afflicted.

- Back in ch.6 the disciples had been given authority over demons and had been successful in casting them out of people. This may explain why the father doubted Jesus' power.

- The person who believes can do the humanly impossible when the humanly impossible is what God wants.

- Who can have faith when looking at their own ability? But everyone can have faith when looking at God's ability.

- There are a couple different interpretations of vs. 29 (see below) and one of them is that Jesus was being sarcastic. If casting out demons had gone to their head, and they had started to become prideful of their ability they may have stopped relying on God for power. This may mention of prayer may have been Jesus' way of reminding them who has given them this ability.

- The root of faith means persuaded. What are you persuaded by?

Mark 9: 29 - He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.

If this message sounds really interesting to you, and you would like to hear the whole thing click on the link below!
http://www.gibcjupiter.org/media.php?pageID=73 (look for the one entitled "faith" that was posted on 5/16).

If you would like to read Mark 9 for yourself, click on the following link!
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%209&version=NIV#fen-NIV-24568a