Only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21)

this week we're in mark 9 fourteenth or twenty nine parallel is in Matthew 17 14 to 19 and Luke nine 37 through 42 and actually believe Matthew 17 is the one that I'm gonna be reading from I put it on my notes and then I just put all all of them together but I believe the text that I actually copied in my notes is Matthew 17 there are their minor variations between them I started out basing in a mark and then I decided to move to Matthew because Matthew has more content to it than Mark did so Matthew 17 verses 14 through 19 and we need to come to the disciples he saw a great multitude around them and the scribes disputing with them immediately when they saw him all the people were greatly amazed and running to him greeted him and he asked the scribes what are you discussing with them then one of the crowd answered and said teacher I brought you my son who has a mute spirit and whenever it seizes him it throws him down he foams at the mouth gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid so I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out but they could not he answered him and said o faithless generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I bear with you bring him to me then they brought him to him and when he saw him immediately the spirit convulsed him and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming at the mouth so he asked his father how long has this been happening to him and he said from childhood and often it has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him but if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us jesus said to him if you can believe oh if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears lord I believe help my unbelief when Jesus saw that the people came running together he rebuked the unclean spirits saying to a deaf and dumb spirit I command you come out of him and enter him no more and the Spirit cried out convulsed him greatly and came out of him and he became as one dead so that many said he is dead but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose and when he had come into the house his disciples asked him privately why could we not cast it out so we said to them this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting so we've seen numerous times as we've been going through the Gospels Yeshua encountering various types of sickness and demonic possession so we've seen him cast out demons before we've seen him heal people various sicknesses Yeshua obviously has authority over sickness and over evil spirits we see this over and over again however I don't think this story is necessarily about his authority over demonic spirits I think that's been demonstrated in numerous places I think the story is more about the faith of the father and so we see that he is kind of the central character of the story he's kind of what the story revolves around he's the thing that drives this story is this father he comes to the disciples he says I tried I asked your disciples to cast this demon out of my son they couldn't and then Yeshua says if you have faith faith can move mountains he says I believe help my unbelief and then Yeshua speaks to the demon tells it to leave and there's there's this conversation though that's happening between your shoe in this this man Yeshua asked him you know how long has this been happening which I think is an interesting question but why was why was your shoe concerned with how long this has been going on would it have made any difference whether this boy had just recently started having the problem or if it'd been happening since birth does the amount of time that he had been dealing with this issue really have much there any difference on what Yeshua can do maybe whether the boy had just recently started being affected by this demonic spirit or whether he was born with it all you sure had to do is just speak to it it was gone right so why did you should take the time to ask him well how long has this been happening why was he having this dialogue with him so we're gonna look at some of these things so the father says lord I believe help my unbelief this is one of those verses that I think oftentimes we we hear and we think about and we you know we kind of applied ourself at times even we say you know I believe but I need help I need something out my belief become more and I've heard numerous teachings on this one sentence and it's one of those sentences that just really stands out really gets your attention it really sticks with you doesn't it it's one that most people are very familiar with but he said that I brought my son to your disciples and they were not able to cast out the demon we read the verse for you said I brought to my son who has a mute spirit and whenever it seizes him it throws him down he foams at the mouth gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid so I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out but they could not we've seen numerous times when the disciples were able to do that before this and after this we see accounts of this happening where they were able to cast demons out and especially after we see a lot more of it but even before we saw we see some examples of them doing so and so what was different about this one I think it's interesting if you if you read the King James is anybody in here have a King James in front of him says his son was a lunatic didn't it and my son is a lunatic as an evil spirit he has an unclean spirit that tosses him into the fire and into the water says he's a lunatic I don't know if he had a teenage son is joking no but we don't know how old the boy was we don't know if he was a young child we don't know if he was an adolescent we don't know if he was a young adult we really we don't know anything about this boy he seems kind of secondary in this story is barely mentioned so you know it's just kind of mentioned in passing he's a boy he has a demon demon Tallis is another fire into the water and that's about all we know about this boy right we don't know how he became infected or possessed or affected I don't know how you wanted to describe it how he became demonized we don't know how that happened we don't know the circumstances it we should know that it's been happening since he was a child we don't know how old he is so we don't know how long that's been if if he's eight and he you know has had us since he was three you know we don't know if he's 18 and he's had it since he was just a baby we don't know this is very little information given to us about this child it says the disciples couldn't cast the demon out oh I want to go back for just second I think this is interesting this is something that something that kind of caught my attention it says whatever seizes him it throws him to the ground he foams at the mouth he gnashes his teeth and he becomes rigid it sounds an awful lot like epsilon F ellipsoid is intends like he's having some kind of a seizure he's falls to the ground he starts foaming at the mouth gnashes his teeth it becomes rigid he just gets stiff it sounds an awful lot like epilepsy and I've heard a lot of people say that that's what it was and I've heard people say that if if you know someone who has epilepsy today that that's that's what it is I don't know I don't know if it's the exact same thing or not but it sounds real similar but it says he has a deaf and mute spirit the man said he has his son has a mute beer but Yeshua said he has a deaf and me of spirit which i think is interesting because it doesn't say that the boy was deaf or that the boy was mute and Yeshua spoke to this spirit and it drove it out so obviously was able to hear him somehow if it was deaf it really makes me wonder what it's what does it mean that it was a deaf and mute spirit you know another another translation is deaf and dumb and so you know it makes me wonder if it's not about physical hearing but it's about something else something maybe like some kind of spiritual hearing or some kind of a spiritual understanding that's maybe prevent it I don't know it really makes me wonder this is the the disciples couldn't cast the demon out and Yeshua's response he said Oh faceless Oh faithless generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I bear with you bring him to me he seems to be frustrated you sense that frustration in his voice Oh faithless generation how long do I need to put up with you how long do I need to bear with you why is this frustrating to him he seems to be frustrated at her lack of faith when he sees people with a lack of faith he seems to get frustrated by that and you remember a couple weeks ago we talked about when you show us use the phrase adulterous generation you're speaking to the Pharisees and to call them an adulterous generation we talked about how idolatry and adultery things like that were tied in that they were mixing worship with other gods and not worshipping God the way that he wanted to be worshipped he called him an adulterous generation and now he's looking at his disciples and he says you faithless generation and so when when the Pharisees were asking for signs and wonders he says your adulteress when the disciples can't cast out a demon he says you're faithless and we talked about people today Christians today are so so worried about being offensive to somebody you know and I talked about this a couple weeks ago to that Yeshua was not seeker sensitive with the woman he calls a dog remember that he wasn't being seeker-sensitive and right here is another example of that he says you guys her faithless you have no faith and he was frustrated by that you should ask the father how long has this been happening to him and so I just wonder why is that question matter I already kind of mentioned this why does it matter why did he ask that it wouldn't have made any difference it wouldn't have changed anything - why did he ask I think I think he was trying to just sympathize I think he was just talking to the father just connecting with the father the the child's father showing him that he could that he cares showing that him that he has compassion is empathy and you know you imagine this father you know we don't know how long he's been dealing with this it's the situation but I can't imagine it doesn't take very long for that to that type of situation to just wear you out I have a child that falls into the fire you have to run and rescue him out of the fire falls in the water you have to run a rescue him out of the water before he drowns foams at the mouth and goes rigid I mean that would be stressful can you imagine being a father of that child how stressful that would be and in their time they had fires everywhere they cooked over open fires regularly I mean it was common to have an open fire right there in your home everything was done over the fire and so and then water was also abundant you know they they had wells everywhere they had streams and rivers and various things most of the towns were around bodies of water because they needed water handy so they could wash so they could drink various things like that so there was often water and fire nearby so this was a regular occurrence and you imagine how frustrating this father probably was whether he'd been dealing with it for a week or ten years we don't know but can you imagine his frustration and Yeshua says how long has this been happening and I imagine that the father when he hears these words probably says oh he does care I can imagine that would be going through his mind as he actually cares he actually cares about this situation he cares about me he cares about my son he cares what's going on I think that's why you sure asked because it doesn't matter you sure didn't have to know you'd have to know anything all he had to do is just say dumb spirit leave and it would have been it would've been over he wouldn't have ed he wouldn't have had to say another word to anybody and he honestly I don't even think he'd have to say a word I think he could just like look at it and point and it would go away I think he had such authority over the unclean spirits that he didn't even have to speak to him but he chose to as my opinion but I think he was showing the father how much he cared and I think this is something that we see in in what the father his response he says how long has this been happening to him and the man said from childhood and often is thrown into into both the fire and into the water to destroy him but if you can do anything have compassion on us and help us to me he reaches out cries out for his compassion come have compassion mercy on us help us that's what he's appealing to is the compassion and the mercy of Yeshua as he doesn't say if you know if you have the authority to do it we see with the Centurion the Centurion appealed to his authority right the centurion says I am a man of authority I say to one servant go and he goes I say to another one come he comes I I give the word and they do it and you sure said this man has great faith because he understood authority we see with the the woman the the Canaanite woman that he called the dog he spoke about her great faith but she said you know he said your your dog and and I can't give the children's food to the dogs he says yes Lord but even the dogs eat the little crumbs that fall off the table he commended her for her great faith and then we see this man this father and he cries out for compassion and we see that his faith brings healing to his son as well and we we don't have a you know he doesn't say this man has great faith but we see that he does have faith he's as I believe but help my unbelief he appeals to the compassion of Yeshua and I I want to point something out in Exodus 33 we spoke about this last week the Transfiguration and how Moses saw the glory of the Lord passing before him and Elijah saw the glory of the Lord passing before him you remember that and that that's why they were there at the Transfiguration and at least that's what I think why they were there at the Transfiguration that they were witnesses to the glory of the Lord and they were that there to testify that Yeshua is the glory of the Lord well what's interesting is X's 33:19 is a verse we read last week is when the glory of the Lord passed before Moses listen to what God said about himself I will make all of my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion we see numerous times throughout the Old Testament where it talks about how compassionate God is how gracious he is how mercifully is how long-suffering is and so you know we read this verse and says I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion and some people want to say we'll see his compassion is limited he's only he's gonna be picky and choosy about who he's gonna have compassion on but when you look at the the full context of the entire Bible you see that that's actually the opposite of what this is saying you think I'll have compassion on who I'll have compassion on saying I will have compassion on those who don't deserve it on those who who everybody else would neglect I will be compassionate to those I choose to whether or not they deserve it or not whether or not they anybody else would give it to them he says I'm gonna be compassionate anyway that's what he's saying is I will have compassion wherever I choose and so he is a compassionate God so I'm 8615 it says but you O Lord our God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and abundant and mercy and truth so he is full of compassion and his abundant mercy and in fact the Bible teaches that because he is compassionate we should repent and fall on that mercy and this is something I think we need to be to understand to really grasp because a lot of people seem to think oh well he's he's compassionate he's merciful he's gracious I can get away with it I can I can keep doing this and it's okay because he's compassionate he's merciful and he's gracious and he's just gonna keep forgiving have you ever been guilty of having that thought I know I'm not supposed to be doing this right now but you know what God will forgive me you're trusting and leaning on his compassion doesn't mean that he's gonna be compassionate towards you though be he's compassionate towards who he chooses to be compassionate toward him because he is gracious and compassionate we need to turn to him and repent cry out for mercy not say you-know-what I get away with it I can just keep on doing what I want to do and just keep on asking for forgivness and he's just gonna keep on handing it out it's taking advantage of him you realize that's what you're doing is you looking at him like he's a you know a candy machine or something you're just gonna keep going up and getting more and more and more from him that ever without ever putting anything back into it I guess I don't know Dule to 12 through 13 it says now therefore says the Lord turned to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning so rend your heart and not your garments return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and he relents from doing harm he says because God is gracious repent because his compassionate weep and wail and mourn because he is good because he is kind because he is slow to anger turned to him with all your heart this is what the Prophet is saying because God has could turn to him you nothing because good is good you can just get away with whatever you want because God is good turned to him rend your heart cry out to him repent more and weep fast because he is good we need to cry out for compassion just like this father did Lord have compassion on us my son needs your compassion and so I think one thing I got out of this section of Scripture is this father is interceding for his son he is standing in the gap he is trying to heal his son he's trying to have bring deliverance for his son and he's crying out to God he's crying out for mercy crying out for compassion he's crying out for help Lord just lord help of my son help this situation and so as a father I'm challenged and encouraged that I need to be doing that as well I need to be standing up my children standing in the gap in crying out to God Lord about my children help me raise my children right help my children to be safe they're sick I need to be praying for healing for them this is this is one of those verses that you look at this man and you say am I like that am I the kind of father who would do whatever it takes for my children and so I want to challenge you guys by this as well you need to be fasting and praying for your children you need to be interceding for your children you need to be standing in the gap for your children you remember job like the first chapter of job it says the job is a righteous man and he fasted and prayed for his children all the time constantly interceding for his children praying for them he was called the righteous man but you notice in jolla says turned to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping in this morning rend your heart and I think it's interesting you know he cried out for capacity he says because God is compassionate and I think it's interesting this man cried out for compassion and Yeshua said this kind cone will come out with prayer and fasting so I think there's something significant about fasting that we need to be paying attention to fasting is associated with a broken and contrite heart so what we see a joke and Joel right basking is connected to morning and fasting as a sign of repentance now depending on which translation you are using you may not have verse 21 Matthew 17:21 yeah if you have your Bible raise your hand if your Bible is missing that verse what version you have NIV okay hmm and Ivy and Ivy's missing that verse anybody else have a Bible is missing that verse Matthew 17:21 the message is let me sorry the what does that one the complete Jewish Bible yep complete Jewish Bible is missing it if you have an ESV in RSV in RSV nasb living new living the message is missing everything but what do you have I can't hear what does that one you know what translation he's got I can't hear you okay so why is your Bible missing that verse is a question that you probably are asking yourself right now and as you read through your Bible you're gonna notice there's probably a few other verses that is missing too why is that there are textual variants within the manuscripts we have about 5,000 Greek manuscripts several thousand in Aramaic several thousand in Latin and various other languages totalling about twenty thousand different manuscripts when you add them all together and among twenty thousand manuscripts there are textual variants sometimes it's word order where they just flip up the order of the words in the sentence sometimes a word is missing sometimes a sentence is missing sometimes the sentence is duplicated so you have the same sentence twice sometimes you have he like personal pronouns he/she they and sometimes you have personal names like the name of Jesus so like sometimes you'll see Jesus sometimes just say he see he depending on which manuscripts you look at and when you get when you count up all the textual variants between all the manuscripts it makes up about a 1% variation total in all of the manuscripts and 1% variation is phenomenal especially when you have 20,000 manuscripts and you think about how the manuscripts were copied they were copied by hand you have a scribe with a copy of the text here and a blank piece of paper here or parchment whatever you copied onto he reads the sentence writes a sentence reads a sentence writes a sentence and if you do that over and over and over for hours it's easy to make a mistake it's easy to omit a word it's easy to leave out a sentence even it's easy to copy an extra sentence that wasn't there and so we're gonna look at this specific variant though and how this may or may not have been in the original so some people say it was not in the original it was added in later some people say it was in the original it was subtracted later and why some manuscripts have in some manuscripts don't so I want to look at a few of the reasons about this particular variant before we go on because I think it's important because we need to be able to trust our Bible right people when you when you look at your Bible and you see something missing you say wait a minute is is there something wrong with my Bible and I would argue no there's not anything wrong with your Bible okay and oh by the way this 1% textual variant of all the things that are missing or altered or very different none of them effect doctrine not a single one of them affects any particular Christian doctrine whatsoever they most of the variants tend to be pretty minor like I said you know we have the word he instead of Jesus we have word or door flip flopped around we have a word or two missing but it's not like it and a major doctrine is being affected by any of these so this is that's that's another good thing to know if you look at textual criticism for other works of literature this is a phenomenal that only 1% of the text is affected by variation that means I'm in that many documents and the fact that we have 20,000 documents is phenomenal too because that's pretty much unheard of among any other work of literature throughout history so I mean like things like the Iliad in the Odyssey they I think there's a few hundred copies and most of them are thousands of years after the original we have manuscripts that date within a hundred to two hundred years of the original writing and that is also phenomenal that we have something that early there's no other literature that I'm aware of that we have a copy of something that early as we do the manuscripts of the New Testament so I want you to be able to trust your Bible that's why I'm taking the time to explain this I know some of you may be kind of seems boring to you it shouldn't be is not to me this is this is kind of thing is interesting to me to see how God has preserved his word throughout history despite the fact that has been handled by thousands of people over thousands of years is still preserved his word so let's look at I believe there's also month four possibilities of why this verse is in some manuscripts and not in others or possibilities two of them I think are actually legit possibilities and two of them I think are just absurd but there are four basic possibilities that are presented for why this takes place so we have accidental omission and this these are four possibilities for all of the textual variants any any one of them they're the same possibilities so you have accidental omission so like the scribe is copying something he accidentally omits it you have accidental addition where he accidentally writes it in you have intentional deletion where he does it on purpose he's malicious he wants to take it out he doesn't think it should be in there so he takes it out now I think that that has happened with the OVAs Witness Bible that they have actually altered it intentionally because there's things in there that don't fit their theology so they just change them so that is intentional deletion or attentional addition is another thing they do because they want the Bible to fit their theology and so they change their Bible their translation of the Bible they change it intentionally to fit their theology but there are no manuscripts that match up with their changes and so it's easy to say wait a minute you you obviously are the one that changed this because there is no manuscript that has that that wording that reading of that text that you have but with the majority of translations we have today I believe it is most likely an accidental addition or an accidental deletion and so let's look at external emission first so if it is an accidental omission that means that Matthew 17:21 was originally in there and that the scribes accidentally took it out so like a scribe was copying it and he accidentally left that line out his eyes got crossed or something while he was copying it and he accidentally skipped a line which is easy to do if you're doing long blocks of text for hours a day it's easy to just jump from one line to the next and not even realize it and then that got copied that way and then somebody else came along and had his copy and copied the same mistake and so we end up with duplicates of the same mistake because a copy of a copy of a copy you're copying the same mistake that described before you copied so that's how we end up with multiple copies of the same mistake so that's one possibility in my opinion this is this is the most likely thing in my opinion I think it was originally in there and then it got omitted out later but the second option is a very close likelihood I think this is also very possible and that is it's an accidental addition and so at Matthew 21 17 RS Matthew 17:21 is not in the original but one of the scribes mistakenly added it okay now let me explain how that would happen so what would happen is as a scribe is copying the Bible they get very familiar with the text so they get very familiar with you know Matthew Mark Luke John right they're copying these Gospels and they get very familiar with the stories Matthew Mark and Luke have a lot of similar stories or saw their the synoptic Gospels they have very similar stories and so as they're copying as I said this story that we're looking at today is in both Matthew Mark and all three Matthew Mark and Luke and present all three of them and but they're they're different in all three right there's variations and so the scribe may have been very familiar with Mark's version of the story and as he's copying it along he just writes in kind of on autopilot what he thinks it says right and accidentally inserts the verse from mark into Matthew that's a possibility that's one of the theories a lot of the scholars have as to why that might have been put in there I don't think that is what happened but I think it is a possibility I do think it was originally in there and was accidentally removed but I think it is possible that it could have been accidentally added so I want to leave some flexibility for that but the thing is if it was accidentally added because they copied it from mark that means it still happened because mark recorded it and so whether matthew recorded it or not it was recorded in mark and some mark testifies that he said this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting so it was recorded in one of them originally and then copied over to the other later on now some people say it may have been intentionally done so an intentional addition would be like they say well it was in mark but not in Matthew and a scribe decided he needed to have it in Matthew two to synchronize the two and so that's one theory I disagree with that theory as well I don't think that a scribe who is entrusted with handling rightly handling the Word of God would intentionally alter the text I do not think a scribe would do that and we you know you think about who are these people they're persecuted Christians in the first three or four hundred years of Christianity these are persecuted Christians who are hunted down by people like Nero and tortured for their faith they're not they're not fake Christians they're not pretending to be Christians they're real hardcore Christians and they believe every word that is written in there they're not gonna be willy-nilly throwing things in and out intentionally you you understand is the seriousness of that accusation to say that they intentionally removed it or they intentionally added it you're saying that they're miss handling the Word of God intentionally and I think that is a very serious accusation we've got to be very careful when we make that kind of an accusation so I do not believe that they mishandled it in that way I do not believe that they intentionally altered the text but we do have variations and so I say I believe that it was it was unintentional that it was accidental and again it's they're pretty minor so we also have intentional deletion now this would be that if a scribe disagreed with something and they didn't want it in there they might take it out is the claim so some people assert the describe remove the phrase on purpose perhaps to further their theological at jinda or because he had some erroneous reason for thinking it was not original but against scribes were dedicated to faithfully preserving the document and so is very unlikely that they would intentionally do that so again the vast majority of textual variants can be explained by honest mistakes mental lapses may be their eyes got tired and they just didn't catch it miss reading of the text and you're translating Oh sometimes it was translating as they were copying so they were translating from one language into another language sometimes you have variations happening then maybe they just misread it as they were copying it maybe from Greek Aramaic or from Aramaic - Greek or from Greek to Latin as they're copying from different languages oftentimes you may think you read it one way but it was a miss reading and you copy it a little bit different so like one example of that is Yeshua talks about how hard it is for a rich man in the kingdom of heaven it's like putting a rope through the eye of a needle wait a minute your Bible probably says it's like putting a camel through the eye of a needle right which is it well near Mayock it says a rope through the eye veneto and then of the Greek it says a camel through the eye of a needle so which one is it it seems like a pretty big difference doesn't it but if you look at the the Aramaic the word for camel and the word for rope are almost identical they're very similar words it's like kamal and Kamel a camel or a rope well someone who is not fluent in aramaic may have seen it written and thought as a camel wrote the word camel down right so you know those types of variations happen it's not a sinister plot to destroy your text it's not a sinister plot to corrupt the scriptures it's just an honest mistake that happens once in a while and again does that affect major doctrine No is it difficult to thread a rope through an eye of a needle yeah is it difficult to thread a camel through the night oh I have a needle yeah so it's still getting the same point across right you didn't lose anything in that illustration that's been given so my point is we can trust the Word of God and honestly I think you can trust almost any translation of it and I'm gonna be very cautious with that because there are a few that I'm skeptical about like the message which I don't think is actually translation I think that is basically somebody's attempt at comedy if you've ever read it it is awful don't read it it is horrible it's really it's not a translation you know all reality the guy just said you know this is what the Bible says and here I'm just gonna kind of reword in my own words what I think it might mean today and is nothing like the Bible is so far out there but you know a lot of people give like the the looser translations like the NIV and the living and things like that give them a really hard time I'm not a fan honestly I'm not a fan of those translations but I still think that they're trustworthy enough that you can you can learn about God you can learn about salvation you can come to faith in Yeshua that you can learn what you need to know for godliness your salvation that you can still get that even from those loose translations now I tend to lean towards a more word-for-word that's where I like the the New King James the the NASB the NRSV the ESV the King James those are more word-for-word whereas you know a lot of the others they're they're called dynamic trance translation and is more thought for thought I tend to prefer the more word for worse stuff and my favorite is the New King James that's the one I tend to read from the most but if all I had was an NIV breed it because it contains the words of God okay and I I'm saying this because I think that there's maybe some people who are having a hard time trusting the word of God because there is a lot of people out there who are saying they messed with it the Catholics got ahold of the Bible and they messed with it they took stuff out and they hid stuff from us they changed the wording on it they're trying to hide it they're trying to hide God from it they're trying to hide Ushu from us that's not true okay God preserved his word God has preserved his word and we have 20,000 manuscripts to verify it that what we have today is what they had the first and second third century now we have a bunch of different translations because men want money that's a problem so we have variations because of that as well so you might have different translations based on copyright reasons that you know Tyndale has their translation because they don't want to pay royalties to Zondervan Zondervan here's their translation because they don't want to pay royalties to Holman and you know so they all have their own translations that they push because they don't have to pay royalties to another publishing company that's really all it amounts to and so they there are variations in the translation because of that but even those variations are not major good everybody clear you can trust your Bible alright now did you head if you agree okay I think I have beat that horse long enough we can trust the Word of God and we can trust that God has preserved his word in spite of human mishandling that is my whole point and what I'm saying so so there are oh one more thing I'm gonna beat it just a little bit longer internal congruence internal congruence tells us because mark says the same thing as what Matthew is saying in Matthew 17:21 and mark 9 with 28 I think in 29 somewhere around there of a note yeah mark 9:29 so mark 9:29 says the same thing as Matthew 17:21 it's called internal congruence it means that they've validate each other it because it was in one we know that it was true even if it's not on all three we know if it was in one that it was true but if it wasn't two of them you know they confirm each other so even if Matthew 17:21 was not originally in there we know it was originally spoken because it was written down by Mark and Mark had it originally in his you see how that works so we know that Matthew 21 17 21 is true because mark says it as well so even if it was added in accidentally it's still okay because it was already there in mark 9 that makes sense internal congruence confirms it and the word fasting in mark 9:29 there are apparently three manuscripts that don't have the word fasting now again we had 20,000 manuscripts three of them don't have the word fasting because of that some of your Bibles may not have the word fasting in mark 9:29 because the three that don't have it are the ones that they tend to favor in their particular translation so the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are two of the three I don't know I don't know what the third one was and I think it was the third one it was because the part of the page was missing like it was torn where that word would have been and so they don't know if it was there or not that kind of thing but so three out of twenty thousand is a pretty minor thing so that tells me that it was probably most likely originally there and it got omitted a couple times is what that tells me all right so prayer and fasting Tertullian you guys familiar through Chouteau leanness is an early Christian I think is 2nd century theologian writer he had something interesting say about fasting and he said that in actually I believe it helps to also confirm that this was an originally spoken thing by a show by the way because you have a an early Christian writer saying attributing something to the words of Yeshua helps to confirm the text of the Bible that it is actually an original thought and not something that was later added by some scholars want to try to assert and I'm trying to teach you on textual criticism for a reason I hope I'm not boring you but there are people who will challenge you on the Bible they will challenge you and they'll say well that was not originally in there that was added by somebody else and if you're not well prepared for that it may affect your faith you may say wow I don't know if I can trust my Bible now if they approached you with the right argument and you're not prepared for it your faith may crumble you realize that there are that happens sometimes and so I'm not just talking just because I feel like talking and I'm not just telling you all this stuff because I don't have anything else to say I guess I'd I've it's I feel like it's important if I didn't feel like it was important I wouldn't have brought it the topic up so but anyway Tertullian second century theologian wrote about something that Yeshua said concerning prayer and fasting and I think it confirms the fact that you should did teach on this and did speak about this so he says he taught likewise that fasts are to be the weapons for battling with the more direful demons is that not a powerful statement fasting is a weapon for battling the more direful demons that's what two trillion said that you sure was teaching so fasting is a weapon against or Dyer folding what does direful mean that's an old word we're not real familiar with right you hear about like dire straits hmm powerful because have dangerous okay you know the thoughts was doubtful hmm I in rank hey it's referring to more dangerous more treacherous dreadful yeah so he says the more dreadful the more dangerous demons those are the ones you've got it gotta approach them differently you've got to approach with fasting you sure said this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting you realize that this this speaks of the importance the importance of fasting in our life you sure said that if you have faith you can do all things and then he turned around he said but this kind could only come out with prayer and fasting what is he saying if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move that mountain this kind only comes out with burn fasting though this guy comes up by nothing but prayer and fasting you see how important he's saying prayer fasting is in this statement this is an important thing it has an ability to affect the situation more and just by prayer alone more than just by faith alone besting somehow gives you more ability over this type of demon so why is that there are some things that cannot be defeated without prayer combined with fasting is what I believe he's saying so who needs to be doing the fasting is my first question is the person with the demons supposed to fast is the father who's praying for his son supposed to fast is the disciples who were trying to cast out the demons supposed to fast who is it they're supposed to be doing the fasting and I think that there's a possibility for all three so if if it is the demonized person that needs to fast perhaps there's a need for fasting in a situation like if the demon the evil spirit is somehow fed off of your flesh leanness if by feeding your flesh you are somehow feeding that spirit perhaps you need to fast because that will starve out that spirit who is being fed by your flesh well that's one possibility you know perhaps you know these evil spirits are strengthened by pampering your flesh that's actually a phrase I read in a commentary that says that some evil spirits seem to be fed and strengthened by pampering the flesh so what appalls say he says I beat my flesh daily into submission I discipline myself I mean what does the root word of disciple is discipline right we're to be disciplined people what is one form of discipline esting fasting is a type of discipline you were training your body you're saying stomach you are not my god you are not in control of me I choose when I'm gonna eat and when I'm not gonna eat that's ultimately what fasting is doing right you were selling your flesh flesh you were an out-of-control of me if I want to eat I'll eat if I don't want to eat I'm not gonna eat and flesh you have no say-so in the matter there's altima what you're saying with fasting is it not when you're sure fast that he said I have food that you know nothing about my food is to do the will of the Father he says all right so when we fast we should probably have the similar attitude that my food is to do the will of the Father to do the one will the one who sent me so we're to be disciplining ourselves to fasting fasting weakens the flesh and subdues the passions that are nourished by its continual feeding fasting weakens the flesh and subdues the passions that are nourished by continual feeding No the type of fasting that some people need to do might have nothing to the food maybe your flesh is being fed by something else maybe is being fed by media evie movies music magazines maybe that's what your flesh is feeding on it may have nothing to do with food at all we need to be considering what kind of fast does does my body and spirit need fasting weakens the stronghold that such evil spirits might have on a person this kind comes out by nothing but prayer and fasting fasting weakens that stronghold interesting is I believe fasting okay so that was if the person with that there was being affected by the evil spirit with Asia fast right so now what if it's the person who is praying and trying to cast out and deliver this person from something demonic perhaps they need to be fasting as well fasting strengthens our faith this is something that a lot of people may not realize but fasting strengthens our faith because as we are fasting and we're depending on God we're turning to him we are leaning on him for strength we are letting him feed us we depend on him more it increases our ability to trust him it increases our ability faith it weakens our flesh and feeds our spirit as some people like to say right star the flesh feed the spirit so it's a pretty popular way to phrase it I assembled across an interesting commentary that is actually from a distant relative of mine his name is Henrik Maier he was a german pastor and he wrote a commentary on the entire Bible or I'm sorry on the entire New Testament and I stumbled across a quote he has on this particular verse and I thought it was interesting it says if you have only a slender amount of faith you will no doubt be able to accomplish things of an extraordinary and seemingly impossible nature but in order to expel spirits of so stubborn a character as this you require to have such a degree of faith as can only be reached by means of prayer and fasting you have neglected the spiritual preparation that is necessary to attainment of so lofty of faith although that's that's a really cool way to put it that your faith can do so much but there are some things that you have to combine your faith with very fasting I want to just point out I know I'm running out of time hang on here I just want to point out a few examples of men in the Bible people in the Bible who fasted and what it says about it so David fasted in 2nd samuel 1216 David therefore pleaded with God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground Ezra fasted as her 8:23 and 9/5 it says so we fasted and entreated our God for this and he answered our prayer ninety-five says at the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting and having torn my garment and my robe I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my god Nehemiah fasted Nehemiah 1:4 so it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for my for many days I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven Daniel fasted Daniel 9 3 then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes Yeshua Fassett in Matthew 4 to when he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward he was hungry Cornelius fasted acts 10:30 so Cornelius said four days ago I was fasting until this hour and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house and behold a man stood before me in bright clothing the apostles fast in acts 13 to 3 as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them they sent them away x14 23 so when they had appointed elders in every Church and prayed with fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed this is something that godly men do we see examples in the Old Testament and in the New Testament men of God men of faith men who God uses if asked they pray and I want to encourage you if you are a man of God or a woman of God for that matter as I'm speaking especially the men today everybody should be praying and fasting but I'm specifically speaking to the men today this father interceded for his son if you're a father you're a husband your role in your family is to be interceding for your family you're to be the head of your home you were to be the godly leader in your home you were to be praying and fasting for your family interceding for your family you are the priest the protector the provider for your home you're to lead them closer to God you were to intercede for them you're to protect them and to provide for them that is your job as a husband and a father if all you're doing is providing you're not fulfilling your role if all you do is go to work and are in a paycheck and then you go home and watch TV all night or play video games or do whatever else you might do you're not leading your home you need to be praying for your family you need to be leading them in the word you need to be leading them in righteousness teaching your children about God you need to be loving your wife the way that what is if I will say the way that Christ loved the church Ephesians says husbands love your wives the way that Christ loved the church this is a role of a man in the house this is your responsibility love your wife the way Christ loved the church what does that mean you sacrifice yourself for her you're not loving yourself you're loving her the priest of your home lead them spiritually be the provider of the home take care of their needs be the protector of your home guard them against attack and how you guard them cover them our prayers surround them in prayer intercede for them I would encourage you to be intentional about prayer and fasting there's some things that only can be affected by prayer and fasting I went I want to encourage you to be intentional we need to be people who are intentional about prayer and fasting this is challenging to me as well now there they're probably some people in this room who have never fasted today in their life there are probably some people in this room who have only fasted one day a year and it's on Yom Kippur and there are probably other people who have done a lot of fasting over the years it should challenge every one of us no matter where you're at that we need to be more intentional in prayer and fasting if you're not challenged I'm challenging you right now be challenged to be more intentional about prayer and fasting interceding for your families okay

Channel: The Grafted Church

Views: 2,226

Rating: 4.8933334 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, church online, sabbath service, live sabbath service, preacher, bible teaching, Lex Meyer, Grafted Church, Torah Portion, Yeshua, Jesus, Bible, prayer and fasting, matthew 17 21, matthew 17 explained, matthew 17 sermon, boy with deaf and mute spirit, demon possessed boy, demonized boy

Id: nH3ev8-CGaw

Length: 62min 47sec (3767 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2019