When Your Faith Isn't Enough | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are beginning a brand new

teaching series called What Remains. 1 Corinthians

13 .13 says, These three things remain, faith,

hope, and love. And today we are excited to welcome

our guest speaker, Justin Stratus, to talk to

us more about faith. What is faith? How can I

have faith? And do faith and doubt go together?

Or do I need to have a perfect kind of faith?

Those are just some of the questions that Justin

is going to unpack for us in today's sermon.

Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter

Mark 9:14–29

9, verses 14 to 29. When they came to the other

disciples, they saw a large crowd around them,

and the teachers of the law arguing with them.

As soon as the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed

with wonder and ran to greet him. What are you

arguing about? He asked. A man in the crowd answered,

Teacher, I brought my son who is possessed by

spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever

it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He

foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth. And becomes

rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the

spirit. But they could not. You unbelieving generation.

Jesus replied. How long shall I stay with you?

How long will I put up with you? Bring the boy

to me. So they brought him. When the spirit saw

Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.

He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming

at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, How

long has he been like this? From childhood, he

answered. It has often thrown him into a fire

or water to kill him. But if you can do anything,

take pity on us. and help us. If I can, said

Jesus, everything is possible for the one who

believes. Immediately the boy's father exclaimed,

I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. When

Jesus saw that the crowd was running to the scene,

he rebuked the impure spirit. You deaf and mute

spirit, he said, I command you to come out of

him and never enter him again. The spirit shrieked,

convulsed him violently and came out. The boy

looked so much like a corpse that many said he's

dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted

him to his feet and he stood up. After Jesus

had gone indoors, his disciples asked him, why

couldn't we drive it out? He replied, this kind

comes out only by prayer. The word of the Lord.

Morning, everybody. It's a real pleasure to be

here. Rob already introduced me as a professor

of theology at Wycliffe College. And I just wanted

to say. You get to hear me speak about God and

theology this morning for free. But how much

more fun would it be if you could pay money to

hear me talk about God? And if that excites you,

then you should enroll at Wycliffe College. But

it's a real pleasure to preach the scriptures

to my church family this morning, as it always

is. But before I begin, would you pray with me?

Lord, we believe. Help thou our unbelief. Amen.

So for the past 15 years or so, I've started

nearly every one of my sermons with that prayer.

So it was a real cool surprise when Rob asked

me to preach today from Mark chapter 9, where

Mark 9 · chapter mention

this prayer comes from. And I guess to me...

I believe, help my unbelief is something of a

perfect summary of what it means to follow Jesus.

Because it sort of weaves together all of the

elements of this mysterious leap that characterizes

so much of the Christian faith. And Christianity

is a leap in my view. Being a disciple of Jesus

is not the result of a calculated strategic risk

-reward analysis. It's a decision that all of

us have to make in response to that moment when

Jesus Christ bursts into the scene of our lives

and commands that we follow him. Now, a Christian

is just a person that says yes to that command.

It's a person who, like Simon, Andrew, James,

John, Levi, and all the other disciples, hears

that call, and as Mark so often puts it, immediately

leaves their old life to follow Jesus. But it's

more than that. Because following Christ is a

leap, or rather, following Christ is a leap.

Only if Jesus is there to catch us on the other

side. In other words, following Jesus is not

an achievement on our part that we get sort of

rewarded for. It's a constant daily entrusting

ourselves to him. It's not a thing that we possess.

It's a life that we receive day by day in Jesus's

presence. And that's why this prayer, Lord, we

believe, help our unbelief, is something that

we pray not once, but we pray every moment for

the rest of our lives as disciples. There's another

reason why I love this prayer, and that's because

in my experience, and maybe in yours, it's like

really hard to believe in Jesus. I mean, in some

ways, it's easy to say the words, it's easy to

sing the songs, it's easy to tick the box that

says you're a Christian on the Statistics Canada

form. But no matter how we might look like on

the outside, no matter how loudly we tell people

we believe, we all know that little voice deep

down on the inside that no one hears but us.

It's a voice that asks us quietly but persistently,

Yeah, but like, do you really believe all of

this stuff? Do you actually believe this? One

of the comforts of this passage, I think, is

that this doubt, that niggling voice in our minds

is not a surprise to God. In fact, doubt is exactly

the thing that we need to admit in order to receive

the faith that God is offering. And it's kind

of a paradox, right? I mean, admitting you don't

have faith is obviously the condition for getting

faith. But asking God for a faith that you don't

have kind of proves that you have something of

it already. Otherwise, why would you ask for

it in the first place? Reminds me of this song

lyric from the early 2000s by this Irish band

called The Script that goes, I'm alive. but I'm

barely breathing. I just prayed to a God that

I don't believe in. You see how the prayer kind

of cancels out the unbelief, but the unbelief

is still there just the same. I believe. Help

my unbelief. I love that. I want that on my tombstone.

Justin believed, and God helped his unbelief.

So that brings us to our passage, Mark chapter

Mark 9:14–29

9, verses 14 through 29. And if you're a Baptist,

you might want to open your Bible and look at

the passage. If you're Anglican, you can just

listen. Mark chapter 9, verses 14 through 29.

Mark 9:14–29

Bit of context. Now at this point in the Gospel

of Mark, Jesus is kind of puttering around in

the upper end of Israel, north of the Sea of

Galilee. in these villages that are surrounding

this larger city called Caesarea Philippi. And

this is where Jesus began his itinerant ministry,

according to Mark. And that's the place he's

eventually going to leave and go down to Jerusalem

to be crucified. Now for the disciples, who was

Jesus? He was their teacher. He was their rabbi.

But to everybody else, what Mark calls the crowd,

Jesus was known mostly for two things. Miracles

and ticking off religious leaders. By the time

we meet him in chapter 9, Jesus had driven out

tons of demons. He's healed people of leprosy,

blindness, paralysis, hemorrhage, deafness. He

brought a little girl back from the dead. Not

to mention he fed thousands of people with a

couple scraps of food twice. But he's also at

this time clashing with religious teachers over

Sabbath observance, over his relationship with

so -called sinners, over ritual purity, and pretty

much everything else he ever said or did. Of

course, Jesus did a lot of teaching at this time,

too, in public. But you get the sense when you

read Mark's gospel that most people were just

confused by the stuff that he taught, including

his own disciples. But the disciples always had

this kind of special relationship with Jesus,

which is why in Mark 6, he lets them get their

own taste of the miracle working lifestyle when

he sends them out two by two and gave them authority

to drive out impure spirits, according to Mark

Mark 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. So it must have been this really exciting

time to be a disciple of Jesus. Healings were

up, demon possessions were down, and love him

or hate him, Jesus was kind of like the most

famous guy around. And the cool thing was, if

you were his disciple, you were right there with

him for all of the action, the Galilean equivalent

of being in the room where it happened. Which

is why... it was probably kind of a deflating,

let down experience when Jesus starts talking

to his disciples about all the costs that are

involved in following him. And especially when

he starts telling them where exactly they were

following him to. In Mark chapter eight, verse

31, for example, the text says, he then began

to teach them that the son of man must suffer

many things and be rejected by the elders, the

chief priests. and the teachers of the law, and

that he must be killed. And then three days after,

rise again. And then here was the cherry on top.

According to Jesus, following him now meant that

you, too, have to be willing to die, just like

Jesus. He says, for whoever wants to save their

life will lose it. But whoever loses their life,

For me and for the gospel, we'll save it. Mark

8, 35. I think this is a point that we all reach

in our Christian lives. When you first come to

Christ, for a lot of us, it's just awesome, right?

Jesus is Lord. The light breaks in. This great

adventure starts. You want to tell everyone about

it. there are literally no downsides to following

Jesus that you can think of. As the old hymn

puts it, the peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

a fountain ever springing. All things are mine

since I am his. How can I keep from singing?

Being a disciple of Christ is unambiguously amazing.

But soon, you figure out, That enthusiasm by

itself is not enough to fuel your Christian life

in the long run. That despite your best intentions,

you don't really have what it takes to sustain

your walk with Christ. Along with your early

victories, you start to rack up a few defeats.

And you realize that you need something more.

You need a deeper well to draw from. Here's what

I think the Bible is telling us today. The thing

that you need, the only thing that you need,

the only thing that can sustain a lifetime of

following Christ, a lifetime of cross -bearing

and ministry is not excitement. It's not victory.

It's not zeal, not pie in the sky and the sweet

by and by. The thing you need both to become

and to stay a Christian is faith. And some people

might say faith alone. So let me explain. Here's

the scene. It just happens right before the passage

in Mark chapter 9. The disciples, Peter, James,

Mark 9 · chapter mention

and John, are up on this mountain that's right

up by Caesarea Philippi called Mount Hermon.

And on that mountain, Jesus is transfigured into

this kind of dazzling white figure before their

eyes. And he's standing there with Moses and

Elijah, these two fellows that are long gone

at this point. And a voice from heaven announces

to the disciples that Jesus is the Son of God

and that he has to be obeyed. Now, this whole

scene on Mount Hermon is supposed to make us

think of Exodus chapter 32. That's the scene

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

where Moses ascends this mountain, right? And

is told by God that Israel is now going to have

to follow this thing called the law. You know,

the two tablets with the Ten Commandments. And

just like Moses, Jesus comes down from this mountain.

And what does he find? But chaos unfolding. Only

this time, it's not a golden calf. It's just

a whole big argument. And here's the presenting

issue. The disciples, the ones who didn't go

up the mountain, the remaining ones, are trying

and failing to do Jesus stuff without Jesus.

The crowd's upset because they've come to expect,

I guess, a certain level of service from the

Jesus movement. And the religious leaders are

upset that the crowd is continuing to expect

things from this obviously fraudulent rabbi and

his followers. Meanwhile, the disciples are at

a loss because the authority to drive out demons

that Jesus gave them back in chapter 6 doesn't

seem to be working anymore. And so this is when

Jesus arrives and stuns the crowd with his kind

of what's -all -this -then messianic energy.

And so this distraught father emerges from the

crowd and explains the situation to Jesus. He

came with the crowd looking for Jesus himself

to heal his demon -oppressed son. But in the

teacher's absence, he asks the disciples for

a Jesus -style exorcism. It was their failure

to deliver on this exorcism that kicks off the

dispute. Now, initially, Jesus' response to this

poor father seems like really cold. He says,

you unbelieving generation, how long should I

stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?

But remember, in the story, Jesus is supposed

to be like Moses, right? He comes to the people

with a message from God, and what he encounters

is chaos and rebellion. More to the point, the

stuff that Jesus says, he's using phrases that

in the Old Testament are usually only put in

the mouth of God. How long will these people

treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse

to believe in me in spite of all the signs I

performed among them? That's what God says to

Moses in Numbers chapter 14. In other words,

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

the apostle Mark. the author of this gospel,

is doing everything he can to make sure that

we're thinking of Jesus in the highest possible

terms. His appearance before the crowd is not

just the appearance of this itinerant miracle

worker that they've all been waiting for. It's

the arrival on the scene of Israel's God. And

so Jesus, speaking with the authority of the

Almighty, says, bring the boy to me. At this

point, the boy goes into another fit. And as

he's kind of writhing around on the ground, Jesus

continues to press the father for information.

Well, how long has he been like this? He asks.

Well, he's always been like this, the guy says.

And one of these days, this is going to kill

him. So if you can do anything, please help us.

More indignation from Jesus. If, if I can do

anything. And then the kicker, everything is

possible for the one who believes. So I've got

a question. Who do you think Jesus is talking

about here? When he says everything is possible

for the one who believes. Is he talking about

the man's faith, or is he referring to himself?

In other words, is he saying, if the man believes

in Jesus hard enough, this boy can be healed?

Or is he saying, of course he can heal the boy,

because he, that is Jesus himself, has perfect

faith? Right? Which one is it? It's tricky. So

if you read the gospel, on the one hand, it does

seem like there's a relationship between faith

and healing. So remember in Mark chapter 6, Jesus

Mark 6 · chapter mention

goes back to his hometown of Nazareth, right,

announcing that he's the Messiah. And everyone's

like, I remember this kid. He's like the carpenter's

kid, right? No one believes him. And the text

says that he couldn't do any miracles in Nazareth

because of, quote, the people's lack of faith.

But on the other hand, the Bible, and hear me

on this, the Bible definitely does not teach

that people whose relatives and friends are not

healed, whose friends and relatives are not healed,

are to blame for that. In fact, that is actually

precisely the kind of thinking that this passage

is trying to dissuade us of. It's trying to dissuade

us of the idea that the success or failure of

healing comes down to us. What if Jesus is saying

something different? What if Jesus is saying

something like this? The boy's healing does depend

on faith, but there's no way that you can muster

mountain -moving faith on your own. You just

can't. Just like the Israelites in the book of

Exodus, the only thing that you're capable of

producing on your own is a golden calf. A cheap

imitation of the glory of God's presence. Something

that looks like faith, but in the end is really

just you cosplaying as a disciple. What you need

is not more of you, Jesus says, but more of me.

Now, I think that the father's response to Jesus

in this story basically amounts to him agreeing

with this point. You're right, Jesus. I can't

do this. Not even your disciples can do this.

In fact, nobody has this kind of faith. We all

doubt. We all fall short. There's only one person

on earth with a relationship with God that is

strong enough that God will answer any prayer

that's prayed. And that's you, Jesus. I believe

in you. I have faith in you. Now, would you meet

me in my unbelief? Would you meet me in my doubt?

And would you do what I can't do? Would you heal

my son? And so that's exactly what Jesus does.

You know, in theology, the greatest thing that

one could study, in theology, Jesus is often

referred to as the mediator. The one who stands

in between us and God. The one who brings to

God what God requires of us, but what we could

never give to God on our own. The one who heals

our relationship with God. The one who, even

despite our sin and brokenness, reconciles us

with God, fixes the relationship. Jesus is the

reason that we can approach the throne of grace

not with fear but with confidence, as the writer

to the Hebrews puts it. I think that the disciples

failed to cast out this demon because they were

trying to call on the power of God without a

mediator. In other words, they were trying to

do it on their own. And that's why Jesus reminds

them later on in the passage that this kind of

demon can only be driven out by prayer. Not by

relying on one's own strength, but by calling

on someone who is stronger. Now, obviously, the

demon was cast out. So who's the one who prayed?

It wasn't the disciples. Actually wasn't Jesus

either, right? It's a very odd tale where Jesus

instructs them to do something that he himself

did not do. So who was the one that prayed? The

answer is, it was the boy's father. And what

was his prayer? His prayer was, I believe, help

my unbelief. It wasn't a... powerful prayer,

right? When you think of exorcisms, right? You

think of the movie from the 70s where you're

sort of screaming at the demon and declaring

under the authority of Jesus that this person

needs to be healed of this demon. I cast you

out. The power of Christ compels you, right?

It wasn't that kind of sort of declarative commanding

prayer. It was a humble prayer of need. In fact,

it was a prayer of desperation. And that is the

kind of prayer that moves mountains. That is

the kind of prayer that, as James puts it, availeth

much. I want to learn how to pray like that.

I want you to learn how to pray like that. And

you totally can. We can come to Jesus every morning

and pray Lord, I've been oppressed and sinful

my whole life. I bring all sorts of failures

and maladies. And I feel like the boy in this

story that one day these things in my life are

going to take me down once and for all. But you

say, Jesus, that if I have faith as small as

a mustard seed, I can be saved from all of these

things. The problem is, I don't even have that

small amount of faith. I don't even have mustard

seed sized faith. So here's what I'm going to

ask Jesus. I ask that you take your faith, that

you take your relationship with God, and you

go before God on my behalf. And if you do that,

then I can be saved. Lord, I believe that you

can do this. Now help my unbelief. Amen. Thanks

for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This sermon was recorded at Trinity

Church Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on

August 23rd, 2026.