The Life of Christ

The boy was not actually dead, but rather utterly exhausted to the point of passing out from the entire ordeal.

Mt. 17:19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

• The disciples have a history of success being with Jesus.

• Ps. 91:15 reads: “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him.”

• These apostles became shocked when they couldn’t cast out the demon; this wasn’t what they were used to.

• When they didn’t get an answer, they took Jesus aside; we tend to just give up. The day is coming when we will be shocked if the prayer is not answered.

Mt. 17:20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.”

Jesus explains that this type of demon, one with unusual authority and strength, will not come out unless there is very high level faith.

Mt. 17:21 [ “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” ]

• The brackets provided by the N.A.S.B. translators show that they question whether this verse should be part of the text.

• Common sense would say that vs. 21 definitely belongs; fasting is an important element when casting out devils.

We notice a definite connection between fasting and faith.

• In this case, fasting supercharges our existing faith, enough to cast out the demon.

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Lk. 9:43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples,

Jesus was always one step ahead of everybody.

• With the people still caught up in the wonder of this miracle, it had already become past history to Him.

• His attention immediately shifts to what comes next.

Lk. 9:44-45 “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.

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