Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Mark 9 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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Light blazes on a mountaintop, then real life hits in the valley. We walk through Mark 9, where the Transfiguration reframes the law and the prophets around Jesus alone, and a desperate father prays the most honest prayer many of us have ever whispered: “I believe; help my unbelief.” From unveiled glory to gritty deliverance, this chapter asks whether our faith is just admiration from afar or dependence that endures when everything shakes.

We trace the arc from the disciples’ failure to cast out a demon to Jesus’ diagnosis of the real issue: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” That isn’t a technique; it’s a posture. Along the way, Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, confronts our obsession with status by redefining greatness through humility, and challenges our tribal reflex when the disciples try to shut down an outsider doing good in his name. The takeaway is both unsettling and freeing: the kingdom is bigger than our brand, and greatness looks like serving the least.

Then Jesus turns up the heat on personal holiness. Those startling lines about cutting off a hand, a foot, or an eye aim at the heart, not at literal self-harm. He calls for decisive steps against anything that feeds sin, paired with the sober reality of judgment and the hopeful metaphor of being “salted with fire.” Trials can purify the believer like a living sacrifice, while indifference hardens. Through it all, we hold together God’s justice and his mercy, seeing how he honors imperfect, desperate faith and invites us to walk in honest dependence.

If you’re ready for a clear, practical journey through Mark 9—glory on the mountain, prayer in the valley, courage against sin, and a bigger view of God’s work—hit play now. If this helped you see Jesus more clearly, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.

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Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day.

Pastor Holland:

Keeps the devil away.

Pastor Plek:

I'm Pastor Plek along with Pastor Holland. We're talking Mark chapter 9. We're going to outline it. We're going to find some observations, make some interpretations, and finally bring us to some application. So uh Mark Narin starts out with the the Mount of Transfiguration where the disciples go up with Jesus and he is revealed in full glory. That's verses 1 through 13. They come down, and one of my favorite stories is verses 14 through 29 of the boy with the unclean spirit that Jesus heals. 30 through 32, Jesus again foretells his death, resurrection. Disciples still clueless. And then they start an argument about who is the greatest in verses 30 through through 37. Then Jesus then rebukes John when he's like, hey, we tried to stop a dude who was, you know, doing the casting out demons in your name in verses 38 through 41. Then we have warnings about sin in verses 42 through 50, and he challenges them to be at peace with one another. All right. So what are some observations that you made about this text? Yeah, there's a lot of demons. There's a lot of demons.

Pastor Holland:

Do you ever notice that? Like when you just read through the Gospels, if you were to just read the Gospels and be like, okay, what should I expect in the Christian life? You'd expect a lot more like demon encounters, I feel like.

Pastor Plek:

There's just demons everywhere he goes. Okay, is that because there's a fixed number of demons and the population growth is exploded from like maybe uh several hundred million at the time to uh we at 10 billion or something? I didn't even know we're at 10 billion. I thought we were still in the 8 billion. No, I surpassed that.

Pastor Holland:

But I think he might be on something with that. I think also, you know, maybe uh there was a uh, you know, maybe there was like a hyper focus of demons around this area, knowing kind of like, all right, the Messiah's gonna come here somewhere. And so like lots of demons over there.

Pastor Plek:

Um Yeah, we're at 8.2 billion, by the way. Okay, I was right. Yeah, you were nailing it. Yeah, I don't know. I maybe that's where like, you know, going back to some of my thoughts from the Old Testament, this is like different uh demons had different um priority over different encounters of different parts of the world.

Pastor Holland:

And so and there's different kinds of demons here because Jesus says, you know, the disciples are like, why couldn't we cast that one out? And he says, This kind. This kind. Let me read it exactly. Um this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Okay. So there's a kind of demon that can be driven out just by command. But Jesus drives this demon out by command too, but he's Jesus. So I mean he is the son of God. Yeah. Um, so there's some kinds of demons that um you do a little bit of more powerful for. Uh yeah. Uh that's interesting.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, all right. How about Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus? Very cool. Very cool. Obviously, pointing out the law and the prophets. The boom. The most famous prophet, the most famous lawgiver, Moses, Elijah, and then they disappear, leaving only Jesus because they both point to him. Powerful. Powerful. Okay. Um, I one of my favorite going back to your demon one, the father's prayer. Favorite, favorite prayer. I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief. Such a simple prayer. It's like I've you this guy's at the end of his rope, and I think a lot of us could learn a lot from that prayer. Like you're you're going through something, you're facing the struggle. That's your prayer. Uh, Mark 9, 24.

Pastor Holland:

Man, I love that. And what Jesus, you know, he says to Jesus, if you can do anything, yeah. And Jesus said to him, if you can, yeah. It's just glorious. And like that should be such a an encouragement to us as well. Um, so I I think going to the um nature of man, you know, we we often doubt what God is able to do. Yeah. If you can do something about this, of course he can.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I like that. Okay, what about this? And this is this is where Jesus gets a little weird, okay, for our normal people. He's he starts chopping off body parts. Like he goes through like what three different body parts? I think hands, feet, eye. Yep. Like, what is the deal uh with that of causing one of these little ones? And if your hand caused you to sin, uh if your foot caused you to sin, if your eye caused you to sin, like we're losing a lot of body parts, and so you're gonna enter heaven with, you know, very maimed, clearly. One hand, one foot, one eye.

Pastor Holland:

But with that better to enter heaven as the one-footed, one-handed, one-eyed man than be thrown into hell with all your body parts.

Pastor Plek:

But do you uh this is where I think maybe Jesus uses hyperbole here to point us toward what's the thing that we can't cut out that is the source of all our wickedness?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Our heart. And so I think the point is that's why you should feel this sense of hopelessness uh because of your sin, and that's why you need Jesus so desperately.

Pastor Holland:

And um You think that it could be metaphorical as well, not literal hand, foot, eye, but um Hey, I'm a literal interpreter, right?

Pastor Plek:

So this is clearly he wanted you to chop off head, hand, eyeball, and foot.

Pastor Holland:

For the modern person, uh if your um phone causes you to sin, if your um type of shoes, type of shoes. Like you got some really nice shoes, got some great kicks, and you're like, Yeah. If you know this certain um, you know, group of friends is causing you to sin. If this TV show is causing Cut it out. Cut it out. Take drastic measures, don't let anything cause you to sin. Right. If it's causing you to sin, get it out. Yeah, yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, I like that. All right. Let's talk about just let's let's move from there to just some basic things that we can uh learn about the nature of man.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I gave mine already, so it's your turn.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Uh I just think that we we wrestle with unbelief so much. Yeah. Uh I think that man, and I that's why I love that prayer. So uh men have a struggle with unbelief, they have a longing for faith, and you only come to Jesus with that desperation. Uh, everybody comes to Christ in a crisis, and this guy had a crisis of his son. And if you have a son who's thrown himself into uh water to drown himself or into fire to kill himself, you're willing to do just about anything. And you you want to have faith, you do, but you're like, Man, I've tried everything. I've tried it all. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Um man, also uh the the verse 38, we saw some someone casting out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because he was not following us. Yeah. And I think, you know, this can get into, I don't know if this is a territorial or competitive, or, you know, it could be like, man, um, there's this other church uh that's really growing, and you know, but they're not with us. Right. Uh and Jesus is saying, you know, don't stop, don't stop him from no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. The one who is not against us is for us. I think there's something in our hearts that really struggles to think like that. Um and willing to collaborate or, you know, accept that God is working in other groups and you know, people who are not necessarily my tribe, my group, my church, my network, my whatever.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Uh different stream, whatever. Yeah, that's good. Um how about we underestimate the seriousness of sin? Yeah. Uh which this gets to that last part of like, you know, chop all the stuff off, and then it's you know, salt, there's a salt part, but what does it mean everyone will be salted with fire?

Pastor Holland:

Uh yeah, sacrifices, um uh were you would add salt to a sacrifice, right? And before uh burnt offerings. Yeah. Is that right?

Pastor Plek:

Um and so Yeah, it's it's purification. Yeah. It is a purification and a preservation, right?

Pastor Holland:

So it um I think what it's getting at here is you're kind of contrasting, you know, there's there's those who everyone's gonna face fire. You either um are purified by the fire by the sacrifices you make in this life for Jesus and are purified by them, or you don't offer your life as a sacrifice to Christ and you face the fires of hell.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, or so um you ever have you heard of this? There's three different types of baptism. There's the water baptism, Holy Spirit baptism where he indwells you, and then baptism with fire, says uh, which I and remember he with John and James say, Hey, can you be baptized with the baptism I'm gonna be baptized with? He wasn't talking about his water baptism. Yeah, he was talking about the trial. Suffering. Yeah. So in fact, we even use the baptism by fire. You just throw a new guy in there and he just suffers. Yeah, and that makes him better. And so I I think that that salted with fire might be like you're everyone's gonna be salted with some trials. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Exactly. Okay, and that'll purify you if you have faith in Jesus. And for those who don't have faith, um you you find yourself in the fires of hell. Yeah. So put your faith in Jesus. Amen. All right, how about some truths about the character of God? Um, he is a just judge who punishes sin and will cast unbelievers in hell. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

How about he honors imperfect, incomplete, desperate faith.

Pastor Holland:

That is a more encouraging characteristic, character of God. But yes, both are true.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, very, very much so. Okay, let's get to some application because I think there's a lot here. Um, using specs, sin to avoid, promise claim, example to follow, command to obey, knowledge to believe. What do you got?

Pastor Holland:

I love that prayer as an example to follow. Uh just being honest. I believe, help my own belief. God, I trust you. Uh man, I'm struggling. I trust you a little bit. Help me trust you more.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Okay, how about this one? Uh, command obey. Take sin seriously. Cut out the wicked stuff in your life that it isn't necessarily your hand or the phone, but it is your heart that gets distracted by what's in your hand or what's where your feet are going. Usually when we cut off your feet, that means where your feet take you. Yeah. So cut out that location or that place that you go that is constantly, if it's the bar, if it was a place online that you go, man. It's the whatever. Cut that out. Um yeah. Anything else? I think that's it. Amen. Hey, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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