R. Kent Hughes focuses on the disciples’ inability to cast out a demon due to their lack of faith. Hughes highlights the importance of trust in Jesus and dependence on prayer for spiritual power. He also discusses the disciples’ misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission and the need for humility and reliance on God. The sermon underscores that faith must be active and grounded in Christ to overcome spiritual challenges.
The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.
The scripture reading for this morning can be found in Luke 9:37-45.
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. (Luke 9:37-45, ESV)
This is God’s word. The earlier service I reflected about what a great joy it is to be in God’s house. A marvelous choir anthem this morning, Gladly, for A, we adore thee, and our hearts going up to him. I’m sure there were a lot of amens inside.
Singing the hymns, sitting under this glorious section of God’s Word as it was read this morning, and then the table before us, with all of its glory, the cross. It is good to be in God’s house, and may we sense it as we’re here. Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of Transfiguration, experienced the splendor and glory, the physical splendor and glory of God as no other humans ever. In the heights of Palestine, we think about the text that we looked at last week, under the light of the Milky Way.
Jesus began to glow so that the inner essence inside of Jesus, His glory, began to shine through. And so, He, as the disciples looked on, they saw Him shining as the sun. There’s a sense in which He shined as the sun at midday, at night, and in a poetic sense, He was the midnight sun. And then they also saw Moses, the great representative of the law. And they saw Elijah, the great representative of the prophets, all the law and the prophets represented. And these men had been dead for over a millennium, conversing with each other.
And then they saw a shining cloud, the Shekinah, that is the pulpit. The Shekinah glory of God came and it engulfed Moses and Elijah and Jesus. That was the same cloud that had been the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day for Israel for forty years. That same cloud which had entered the tabernacle upon its completion so that they could not minister and then later the temple so that they could not minister.
And then because of the apostasy that took place after some hundreds of years, it then tragically moved out over the east gate, hovering over the Mount of Olives and it was gone. They heard a voice from that same cloud that day roll out these words, this is my son whom I have chosen, listen to him. And it was a stunning experience. It marked those three men for the rest of their lives and indeed for eternity. They were ravished by it. In fact, years later, Peter gives a retrospect, an eloquent retrospect of that.
I think it’s worth our while to look at. It’s in 2 Peter 1:16-17. 2 Peter 1:16-17, page 1204 in the Pew Bible. God’s Word. We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” (2 Peter 1:16-17, ESV)
We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were on the sacred mountain. Even for Peter, the vision never failed. It remained an anchor for his soul. That vision of the glory, it anchored him through the high seas that were going to come in his life.
And may I say, right at the beginning, brothers and sisters, if you have this vision, if you have especially the full-blown vision of the glory, from the pillar of fire to Jesus transfigured before them, if you have that and see that as Jesus, that’ll hold you. It’s important that you have this aesthetic, so to speak. It’s given to us by Scripture. If you have that wild, ravishing vision, it will help hold your souls.
Well, it’s significant that though Peter and his friends wanted to stay on the mountain, and they tried to do what they could to do it, suggested they build booths, that they dutifully followed Jesus down the hill the next day where they encountered the turmoil of regular life, from the mountain to below. And the contrast is divinely intentional. Now, Dr. Luke has before him Mark’s copy of the Gospel. And Dr. Luke sees that this is divinely intentional. What’s up on the mountain, what happens down below, he sees a link between them.
And so Luke, the historian and theologian, decides he’s going to edit it. And as a matter of fact, he does big time. He cuts the whole thing in half. Just about half the verses that Mark has. Because he wants you to see the connection between the glory above and the glory below. So what he does, first of all, is he edits the first part of Mark’s account. He just chops it right out. It’s all kinds of juicy stuff for preaching. I kind of mourned over it when I saw what he did.
Especially since I’d preached through Mark. So he left out some great, great things there that have to do with the coming of Elijah and his suffering. He wanted to tighten that connection between what’s above and what’s below. He also lopped off the end of it and he left out all kinds of great things. The discussion as to why the disciples couldn’t cast out demons. A great exposition on the necessity of faith just cut right out. But then he adds a conclusion that none of the other Gospels have. It’s only in Luke.
He added it in here purposefully. It’s in verse 43 and that is where he says, And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. That’s the reaction. Now what’s really significant is if you note that word, the greatness of God. That word greatness is the word majesty. It’s the same one that Peter uses when he says, And we saw His majesty. In fact, many translations translate it that way. And we were all astonished at the majesty of God.
43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, (Luke 9:43, ESV)
Or another one says, And we were all struck with awe at the majesty of God.
So what Peter saw, he saw the majesty of the transfiguration. That word describes a transfiguration, but there is a majesty that takes place at the bottom of the mountains which Luke then gives us here. He wants us to see the connection that there’s a sense in which there’s a majesty up there and a majesty down below that you can see in this world. The majesty above, the majesty below. They both came through Christ.
In a sense, the majesty that was visible up on the mountain, the Shekinah glory, is now seen down below at the end of a great work by Jesus. And so then we have, because of that, Luke’s revised version. And that’s what we’re looking at this morning. And you have to think, as the next day they come down the mountain, that they are bounding down the mountain, kind of taking those long steps from stone to stones. They’re flying down the mountain and they’re having a great theological discussion.
It would be like my staff had been up there, and they were coming down, and they were arguing with each other and having a great time about Elijah and Elisha and the sequence and whatever. They’re exhilarated. But their reverie was shattered when they got to the bottom of the mountain and faced a world convulsed with demonic powers. Verses 37 and 40.
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” (Luke 9:37-40, ESV)
It was violence at the bottom of the mountain because what had happened is the disciples had tried to exorcise this demon, and they had failed. The teachers of the law had gathered around, according to Mark’s account, and they were on the attack. It was a heated, violent exchange. This is what they come down through.
And from this tumult, as the crowd turns and sees Jesus, a pathetic, heart-rending cry comes out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son. For he’s my only child.” That word, “to look,” is the same word that’s used in Luke 1:48, where God looks with mercy and compassion. He says, “I want you to look with mercy. Have mercy on my son.” And what a tragic picture you get when you put the Gospel account together. And especially if you were thinking, parents, if you were thinking of one of your offspring having this.
The demon seizes the boy, Mark 9:18. The child screams, verse 39 of our text. The evil spirit throws him to the ground in convulsions, and he foams at the mouth, verse 39 of our text. He’s grinding his teeth, and he becomes stiff as a board, Mark 9:18. Many times he’s been cast into the fire or water, Matthew 17:15, so that he’s covered with lacerations and burns. And his father concludes here in Luke, it’s scarcely, that is, the demon ever leaves him and is destroying him, literally is crushing him to gather, Jesus, have mercy.
How utterly awful. And the disciples are powerless with this boy, this child; they can’t do anything. The question is, why couldn’t they? Because you see, just about six or seven days before, they’ve been doing it right and left. So what’s the problem? Well, the answer lies implicitly, really explicitly, in the dismay that Jesus responds when he sees this. The answer of Jesus that he gives in verse 41:
41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” (Luke 9:41, ESV)
An old French commentator by the name of Frederick Godet said he thinks he knows why Christ was so dismayed. He’d been up with a shekinah glory on the mountain in the presence of divine fellowship and he comes back to these blockheads. That’s why he got upset. So Godet says he feels himself a stranger in the midst of unbelief. The holy enjoyment of the night before, as it were, made him homesick. Well whatever caused Jesus’ emotion to well with such pathos, it is clear that the root of the apostles’ powerlessness is unbelief.
They’re unbelieving, oh unbelieving generation. How so? I mean, they tried. It isn’t because they didn’t try; they tried. They had used previously successful formulas. They had repeated them with confidence at first. It just didn’t work on their very best. Yet their problem, Jesus says, is unbelief. Unbelieving. What happened? Well, I think evidently they had quickly fallen to placing their faith in the process, in what they’d done. And so really, in doing so, they had placed their faith in themselves. And Mark tells us that the problem was prayerlessness. You see, prayer is an act of faith.
And they weren’t believing Jesus. They were unbelieving. This is a scary thing. Realize you can’t really make it from Sunday to Sunday in the pastor’s sermon. The pastor can’t make it from Sunday to Sunday on his sermon because you can’t tell what’s going to happen in six days. To your heart. It is a great insight. We need to learn from this. Now, Jesus gives a blanket indictment when he says, oh, unbelieving and perverse generation.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5, ESV)
It was to everyone around, that whole crowd especially. But you see, the disciples had descended to the level of the crowd.
Further insight into the pathology, what’s going on in their hearts and minds, is the other word in the indictment, perverse. Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation. Now let me say, there is massive intentionality on Jesus’ part. And using this, Jesus knows the Old Testament like the back of his hand. When Jesus teaches, it’s full of Old Testament allusions and quotations, hundreds of them, hundreds of them. And so when he says perverse, they have heard where this is used twice, and that is in the Song of Moses. in Deuteronomy 32. Their minds go back there.
He wants their minds to go back there where there is a connection. And in the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 32:5 and 20, the same word for perverse that is used is used here in Luke. I’d like you to turn to Deuteronomy 32. That’s page 203. You see, in Moses’ time, the people had become twisted, perverse, and perverted as a result of their lack of faith and departure from God. That’s what that psalm tells us. And so Moses, in the psalm, calls them, in verse 5, a warped and crooked generation.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation. (Deuteronomy 32:5, ESV)
There are some other things in between about God’s faithfulness, honey from the rock, beautiful term, the apple of his eye. Then in verse 20, records God saying,
20 And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. (Deuteronomy 32:20, ESV)
Crookedness is the resultant twin of unbelief. You don’t have belief, and then you get twisted. Now back to Luke.
The twisted, perpetually convulsing boy and his distraught father are an eloquent parable of God the Father’s dismay, as seen as sons and daughters in Israel turned from him to false religion, faithlessness, and a perverse and crooked heart. And so when Jesus gives this plaintive call, it is a universal call. “Oh unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I put up with you?” And as they are, then Jesus’ answer is the answer, “Bring your son here for healing.” Because in healing the son, what they’re going to see is the majesty.
And when they see the majesty, and when they see the glory, they’re going to be called back to worship from their perversion and their unfaithfulness. And it is more than a parable, it is history. And so, the beginning of verse 42, you read the history, and even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. Mark says that he was on the ground and that he was rolling around and foaming at the mouth. It is continuous. It is a terrible picture, but that’s what happens right in front of Jesus.
Now, how the boy’s father must have felt when he saw his son wallowing in the dirt, mutely staring through those terrified eyes. The boy can’t say a word. It’s this pathetic, pathetic thing. Imagine a parent’s heart. But imagine Jesus’ heart. He is the most compassionate being who’s ever lived. No one has ever cared like Jesus. His heart was gripped. And brothers and sisters, may I say, this is the way he sees his crooked, perverted, twisted, unbelieving children, ones that move away from him. And his care, his love, is beyond conception. We have the healing.
And there is a whole book in verse 42, but Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to the Father. Three points. You could preach that. But what you have is the sheer competence of Jesus. He didn’t half heal the boy. He totally healed the boy. What did He do? Listen to this. He gave back the boy his mind. He gave the boy back his hearing. He gave him back his speech. He gave him back his body. He gave him back his boyhood. He gave him back his hope.
All of that. And He gave him back to his Father, it says in the text. And you can be sure He gave him the gift of faith that couldn’t be otherwise with this. Can you hear the cheers? Now again, after this, return to Luke’s unique summary verse, verse 43. And they were all amazed at the greatness, that is, the majesty of God. In Christ’s great work, the magnificent splendor of God that had been up on the mountain becomes visible down below. They see the glory. Fellow Christians, there is majesty all around us.
And I am speaking specifically with something specific in mind. The thirty-something couple in the life of this church who have been delivered from their unbelief and their idolatries and their perversities, so they can look at a whole catalog of sins such as in 1 Corinthians 6, and they can say, “And such were we!” That is glorious!
Or the recently divorced person whose life became twisted and convoluted and impossibly tangled, and the life has been straightened out. That is a glory to God, and you can see it. I can see it. They glow.
And that is what our souls need firsthand if we want to see the glory of God. It is firsthand observations of the majesty as He heals twisted and broken lives. That’s why evangelism is so important. I mean, it’s important for the world, first of all. It’s important for the glory of God, but it’s important for us because it refreshes us to the splendor. It takes us up on the Mount of Transfiguration.
It brings the Shekinah glory down from the mountain here, and you see it, the majesty, the majesty, the majesty up on the mountain, the majesty, and they were all amazed at the majesty of God, you see, when they saw it down below. And when that happens, then it reawakens wonder, worship, and commitment to perverse children. Allow me to take it a little farther. Here’s the great truth: Whenever one is born anew of God’s Holy Spirit, that person becomes a partaker of the glory now, the majesty now, and ultimately in the future.
Now, the glory, the majesty, the luminosity isn’t physical, but spiritual, so that the light of Christ then comes from within. And so you have Jesus saying this in Matthew. Matthew 5.16, “…let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Those good deeds are literally beautiful works, which come from God and reflect His moral splendor. You see, God’s glory has a moral aspect to it. When it passed by Moses, hidden in the rock, that luminosity, God proclaimed His goodness and His faithfulness there.
You see, so they shine that.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, ESV)
But today, as with Moses of old, there is a glory that comes to a believer. Moses came down the mountain, his face shone. He covered it up so the people couldn’t see the shining pass away. But when you’re in Christ, you have the glory and the veil is taken off. It’s unveiled. Turn to 2 Corinthians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 3:16-17, page 1143. Today the believer possesses a glory which is unveiled in Christ, now God’s Word.
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, ESV)
So as you grow in Christ, the veil is off and you shine forth the glory. Incredible. Become like stars in the universe. You shine like stars in the universe. Now, if there was ever a beautiful coming together of Scripture, it’s this. Deuteronomy 32, which talks about a perverse and perverted generation.
The only other place it’s quoted in the New Testament is in Philippians, the second chapter, verses 15 and 16. I want you to turn there because that’s where you see you shine as stars in the universe, page 1162, Philippians 2:15-16. So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, Exodus 32, as you see, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Twisted world, crooked world, perverse world, unbelieving world, and you shine like a star in the universe. Incredible.
If you’re taking notes, you ought to cross-reference Daniel 11:3. We won’t turn there, but it talks about those who turn people to God cause them to shine like stars in the firmament. It’s like the gospel in Daniel. And ultimately, while you’re shining like a star in the universe, and that’s what you are if you have the glory, ultimately you become a partaker of the glory. Turn to the last chapter in the Bible, Revelation 22, page 1231, Revelation 22.
See, ultimately you enter the glory and you become citizens of a new city that needs no lights. God’s Word. Revelation 22:3.
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:3-5, ESV)
Glory! Ultimate glory!
Now back to earth and the final sobering lines of our text. And remember, this is all in the same incident, and Luke wants us to see it. The end of verse 43, and then into verse 45. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, He said to His disciples, listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you. To paraphrase that, lay this in your ears, or hang it in your ear, I suppose. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. It’s a prophecy of the cross.
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. Right in the middle of all this glory and all this majesty and rejoicing, Jesus gives a prophecy of the cross, and it says they’re afraid to ask Him what it was. The reason they were afraid is that they were beginning to realize the ominous destiny facing Jesus and the implications that it had for their own lives. That’s why they were afraid.
In fact, if you look at Matthew and the parallel account in Matthew, you find out it doesn’t say that they were afraid, it says they were filled with grief. They were saddened by what they heard. So they were afraid to ask because they didn’t want to hear something they didn’t want to hear. I mean, all this glory, and then the cross, but this, the Lord of glory, the veritable Shekinah glory, the majesty manifests himself, the one above and the one below embraces the cross, and the cross becomes the glory of the church.
It is the glory, such a glory, that Paul would say at the end of the book of Galatians, he gives an explosive proclamation: “May I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” you see, wherever the Lord went, whether it was on the Mount of Transfiguration, whether it was down below where he heals a man, you see his majesty above, his majesty below, and you see his majesty on the cross, and his majesty is in the suffering and the atonement and the dying for us.
For thy blessed cross, which doth for all atone, creations’ praises rise before thy throne. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; tell all the world, adore His sacred name. Glory to His name, and this morning, this is a glory, a supreme glory. You can’t see the elements glow, so to speak, but the glory is there, the glory of Jesus. He gave His blood and His body for us. And may we come to these holy moments realizing all glory be to Him. Glory. Glory in the highest. Glory on earth. Glory on the cross.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14, ESV)
Glory at the table. Glory in our lives as we shine as stars, lights in the universe for Jesus. Father, please, Father, help no distraction to come in the following moments. And may all glory go to your Son. Amen.
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