I Do Believe; Help My Unbelief
Faith, Doubt, and the One We Follow
Scripture: Mark 9:14–29
Chapter One: The Hinge of the Gospel
We are continuing our explorations through the miracle stories in Mark’s Gospel. Today’s miracle comes in the second half of the Gospel, in chapter nine.
There are sixteen chapters in Mark’s Gospel, and this story comes just beyond the midpoint. But this is about much more than simply the length of the book.
The important thing is that this miracle occurs on the other side of a turning point in the larger story of the Gospel.
That turning point comes in one of the stories just before this one: Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah.
In the Christianity Explored material that some of us have been studying in Pinder Hall over the last several weeks, the leaders describe this moment as the hinge of the whole Gospel.
The story goes like this.
Jesus and His disciples are on their way, as they must have been almost every day, following Jesus, walking along the road, learning what it means to follow Him.
As they travel, Jesus asks them:
“Who do people say I am?”
They reply:
“Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
Then Jesus asks:
“But what about you? Who do you say I am?”
And Peter answers:
“You are the Messiah. You are the Christ.”
This question, Who do you say I am?, is the pivotal question of the whole Gospel of Mark.
It comes here, right in the middle of the Gospel, because in some ways Mark has already given his readers enough information to answer it.
It is time to make a decision.
Mark seems to be saying to us:
Who do you say Jesus is?
You have seen that He is one who forgives, one who heals, one who sets people free.
You have seen that He has power and authority over evil spirits, over nature, over sickness, and even over death itself.
You have seen that He has revealed Himself to be one who is God.
So it is time to make a decision.
But in another way, the most important thing Jesus will do in this story has not yet happened.
Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah is a turning point in the Gospel, but it is not the only turning point.
Another will come in chapter eleven, when Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time.
Mark’s story, which has been running at full speed for eleven chapters, will slow right down.
And Jesus will walk deliberately toward the cross.
So perhaps we do not quite have the whole story yet.
Perhaps there is still more about this person, Jesus, that will be revealed to us.
And perhaps that helps us understand the disciples in today’s story a little better.
Perhaps it helps us understand the man whose son is possessed by an evil spirit.
But then again, perhaps you do not find it difficult to identify with these characters at all.
Perhaps it is quite easy for you to understand a group of disciples who do not have enough faith to heal a suffering boy.
Perhaps you find it easy to understand a father who both believes and fails to believe.
Chapter Two: A Sixteen-Year-Old’s Crisis of Faith
One of the turning points in my own life happened when I was sixteen years old.
I was participating in a high school student exchange program in England.
As part of the program, we were allowed to choose the courses we would study during the four weeks we were away from home.
One of the courses I chose was World Religions.
Now, I have to admit that I chose it partly because I thought it might be easy for me.
I also chose it for apologetic reasons.
I thought that by taking this class, I would come away with an even stronger argument for why Christianity was the only logical religion.
That was what I expected.
But after about three weeks, I found myself in a full-blown crisis of faith.
The thing was, I still had plenty of reasons to believe in Jesus.
I was in no way ready to renounce Him.
But I also had a number of reasons to doubt.
In fact, it was not really the World Religions course that had given me those reasons.
It was more as though the doubts had been there all along, and now they had awakened in my sixteen-year-old mind and heart.
Questions began troubling me.
Do people who live and die without ever knowing anything about Jesus really go to hell?
Why have so many wars, and so much killing throughout history, happened in Jesus’ name?
And then there was the biggest question of all.
How do I know for sure?
How do I know for sure that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life?
How do I know for sure that He died for us?
How do I know for sure that He rose again?
I could very much echo the words of the man in Mark chapter nine:
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Chapter Three: Faith and Belief — One Word
This story in Mark chapter nine has a great number of similarities with the other exorcism stories in Mark’s Gospel, the other miracles in which Jesus drives out an evil spirit.
In many ways, it seems like one more example of Jesus demonstrating His power over evil spirits.
And it is an example of that.
But because this kind of story has become familiar to us as we have followed Mark’s Gospel, our attention is drawn to what is different.
What is unique about this particular miracle?
The central uniqueness of this story has to do with faith and belief.
Now, this might seem obvious if English is your first language, but it bears repeating.
In the New Testament, faith and belief are one word.
They are the same thing.
In English, we use two different words because we do not use faith as a verb.
If someone comes to you and tells you something, you respond by saying, “I believe you.”
You do not say, “I faith you.”
Do you hear the difference?
Or consider our Christian creeds, or the song we sang earlier:
“I believe in God the Father, Christ the Son, God the Holy Spirit.”
We say, “I believe.”
We do not say, “I faith God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
But in Greek, in the New Testament, when you encounter faith or belief, you are encountering the same root word, over and over again.
And this root appears four times in the story in Mark chapter nine.
The first occurrence is unbelief.
Jesus calls the crowd, and everyone is included in this description, an unbelieving generation.
Then the word appears twice in verse twenty-three.
First, Jesus says to the boy’s father:
“Everything is possible for one who believes.”
The man immediately responds:
“I do believe.”
And then the fourth occurrence comes in the man’s continuing statement:
“Help me overcome my unbelief.”
Mark, the Gospel writer, is drawing our attention to a question of faith.
Do you believe, or do you not believe?
But in this man’s response to Jesus, we are given a profoundly succinct truth about that question.
The answer may contain a paradox.
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”
It is half statement and half prayer.
Half firm declaration and half desperate plea.
And it encapsulates our shared human experience.
Chapter Four: Two Sides of the Same Coin
The well-known sixteenth-century reformer John Calvin once wrote:
“These two statements may appear to contradict each other, but there is none of us that does not experience both of them in ourselves.”
Belief and unbelief can be found in every one of us.
I think of this man’s response to Jesus as two sides of the same faith coin.
On one side:
I believe.
On the other:
Help my unbelief.
Two sides of one coin.
We can call this unbelief doubt.
The truth remains the same.
Faith and doubt are tied together, and both can be found in every one of us.
You see, doubt is not really in opposition to faith.
Doubt is in opposition to certainty.
And it was a particular kind of certainty that I was searching for when I was sixteen years old on that high school trip.
It was that particular kind of certainty that plagued my young mind.
What I wanted was an airtight logic for the Christian faith.
I was searching for an argument to end all arguments.
I wanted to know for sure, beyond the shadow of any doubt.
And I thought that if I had any lingering questions, if I had any doubts, then I did not believe.
Or perhaps I could not believe.
I assumed that this specific kind of certainty was attainable.
And I assumed that I had to possess this kind of certainty in order to truly believe.
So I made my questions and my doubts the enemies of my faith.
And it became too much for my sixteen-year-old heart and mind to handle.
Chapter Five: A Telephone Call Home
Eventually, I broke down in tears in my room.
And I called home.
My parents graciously picked up the telephone in the middle of the night.
I talked to both of them for over an hour.
This was in 2004, calling from England to Oklahoma, so I imagine that telephone call must have cost something like a million dollars.
I really have no idea.
Now, my dad is also a pastor.
He and I think very differently about doubt.
I did not know that at the time, but I do now.
And I mention that because I do not actually remember much of what he said to me that night.
I remember that he talked a lot.
And I listened.
But I remember one particular thing.
He quoted Mark 9:24 to me.
He heard, through my tears, that I both believed and did not believe.
And that mattered.
You see, faith does not give us the kind of neat and tidy, one-hundred-percent certainty that I had been searching for.
Faith gives us a different kind of certainty.
It gives us a sureness.
A confidence.
A peace.
A persistent hope.
Hebrews chapter eleven, verse one, reminds us:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
When we believe, there will always be something we do not see.
Something we do not know for sure.
Something we have to take on faith.
That is what happens when we believe.
This is simply part of being human.
And that means some questions, some doubts, will always live right alongside belief.
Some unbelief comes together with belief.
There is not one of us who believes perfectly and completely.
Not one.
So every one of us can say, and every one of us can pray:
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”
Every one of us can repeat these words.
Whether you have been a Christian for decades, or whether you would not call yourself a Christian at all.
Chapter Six: The Person in Whom We Believe
The truth in this miracle story is about the person in whom you put your faith.
The shape of my faith has changed a great deal since I was sixteen years old.
But what has not changed is the person in whom I put my faith.
I learned in a fresh way all those years ago that Jesus is the one to believe in.
And I keep trying to learn this every day as I seek to follow Him.
Jesus is the one to whom I can say:
“I do believe.”
And He is the one to whom I can also say:
“Help my unbelief.”
This story ultimately points us to the subject of our faith.
It is not simply about giving us permission to believe while still having doubts.
Faith and doubt are intertwined for us as human beings.
That is simply the reality of our experience.
But if we can accept that faith and doubt come together, then this story challenges us to ask a different question.
In whom are we placing our faith and our doubts?
It challenges us to bring all of our faith and all of our doubts to Jesus.
It is about Jesus.
It is not about how much I believe on any given day.
It is not about how much I doubt on any given day.
It is about Jesus.
If I were to put this just a little provocatively, I would say:
Put your faith in Jesus, and put your doubts in Jesus.
Come to Him with both:
“I do believe.”
And:
“Help my unbelief.”
The journey of discipleship, this journey of faith, is ultimately about whom we believe in and whom we are following.
Jesus is the one to believe in.
And Jesus is the one to follow.
He can hold your belief and your unbelief.
And He will lead you into life.
Chapter Seven: He Will Raise You Up
At the end of this miracle story, Jesus takes the boy by the hand.
And He raises him up.
That is what Jesus will do for you.
He will take you by the hand and raise you up, with your faith and your doubts.
He will take you by the hand.
He will raise you up.
And He will lead you into life.
A Closing Prayer
God, we confess that at all times, every day, we believe and do not believe.
We have faith, and we have doubts.
This is who we are.
And we bring ourselves to You.
We trust in You.
We trust that You will hold us.
We pray that the truth of this good news would sink into our hearts today.
In Jesus’ name, and by Your Holy Spirit, we pray.
Amen.
End of sermon.
Based on the sermon transcript provided, Mark 9:14–29. Edited into chapter form for readability, with the original speaker’s voice and central message preserved.
