Bible Study series: Matthew 17:14-20. The disciples could not expel it. They needed further instruction.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 17:14-20
14 Now when they came to the crowd, a man approached him, kneeling before him 15 and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son because he has seizures and suffers badly, for often he falls into the fire and often into the water! 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 In reply, Jesus said, “Oh unbelieving and distorted generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him here to me!” 18 Then Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed from that moment. 19 Then the disciples came up to Jesus privately and said, “Why were we unable to expel it?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your small faith, for I tell you the truth: if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Go over from here to there, and it will go.’ And nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:14-20)
Comments:
Jesus and Peter, James, and John were coming down from the high mountain, where the disciples received the vision and Jesus was temporarily transformed or metamorphized.
14:
Always remember that after you have your mountaintop experience of a taste of glory, you will have to confront a demon or the trials of life. That is Satan’s or the world’s counterattack, designed to discourage and wear you down.
15:
Here the demon is fighting against the boy and against health. Demons are awful beasts that hate humanity. Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:39 says the boy foamed and ground his teeth. Matthew here says the boy is an epileptic, but this was caused by a demon, not a strictly natural cause. In other words, all diseases hit the body naturally and have natural causes, but a few of the diseases also have a demonic cause—both natural and demonic. A demon causes it, but it manifests in the body. It takes discernment to figure out how to pray. Let the Holy Spirit guide you.
7. Gifts of the Spirit: Discernings of Spirits
16:
“disciples”:
“heal”: the verb means to “make whole, restore, heal, cure, care for.” The man uses this verb, and at first I thought it did not fit, but then Matthew reuses it in v. 18. So we have deliverance and a healing. As I just noted, it takes discernment when it is demonic or an organic disease only or both demonic and a disease. Here it is both demonic that worked its way to seizures.
The nine disciples were unable to expel it. Just earlier Jesus commissioned them to “do the stuff,” or they had authority to expel demons (Matt. 10:8), but this one was stubborn. Mark says that even Jesus had to ask the question of the father about how long he had the demon (9:21), and the father answered “since childhood. If you can do anything, help us!” Jesus replied, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” Then the father cried out with very comforting words, which must have stuck in Peter’s mind when he was preaching his stories about Jesus, and Mark was recording them (or so says church history). “I believe! Help my unbelief!” the father said. (Once again, Matthew the Trimmer omits these small details.) This cry is a perfect description of the dilemma that people—you and I—face when we see a great need and want to have faith in God, but our desperation and unbelief get in the way. Yes, God responds to desperation, as Jesus is doing here, but sooner or later the mind has to settle down and trust and believe. That’s the point Jesus was making. “All things are possible to them who believe!”
Desperation ≠ Faith
One good way to leave behind your desperation is to read up on Scriptures that talk about who God is, how much he loves you. Also study Scriptures that promise healing.
17:
“distorted”: it comes from the verb that means “thoroughly turned,” so that it is crooked. One translation has “twisted.” One lexicon suggests “depraved.” The idea is of an entire generation being distorted in their perspective and minds.
I thought I should point out that Jesus does not put up with the nonsense in his generation, and he does not put with the nonsense in ours. Rev. 2:20 says that the resurrected Jesus rebuked the church at Thyatira for tolerating the woman Jezebel. Jesus told the church he was about to come on the scene and take care of business.
Jesus is speaking of the entire generation, not to the man himself or the disciples. “This generation” comes in for criticism many times: Matt. 11:16; 12:39, 41-42, 45; 16:4. In 23:34-36, this generation has gone past the point of no return.
18:
“rebuked”: it is the verb that means “rebuke, censure, warn,” and even “punish” (see Jude 9). In exorcisms it may have developed a specialized meaning, so one should use it, as Jesus did. Be authoritative. In any case, he has given us authority to tread on the devil (Matt. 10:8; Luke 9:1 and 10:19).
There are two main ways in the Greek NT to express demonic attacks to varying degrees, from full possession to just attacks: “have a demon” and “demonized.” The latter term is used often in Matthew: 4:24; 8:16, 28, 35; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22, but only once in Luke (8:36), and Mark four times (132; 5:15, 16, 18). John uses the term once (10:21). In Luke 8:26-39, Luke uses both “have a demon” and “demonized,” so he sees the terms synonymously. “Demonized” comes from the verb daimonizomai (pronounced dy-mo-nee-zo-my), which just adds the suffix –iz- to the noun daimōn (pronounced dy-moan). It is a very convenient quality about Greek (English has this ability too: modern to modernize). Just add this suffix to a noun, and it turns into a verb. So it looks like “have a demon” and “be demonized” are synonyms. The context determines how severe the possession was. As it turns out, however, Matthew does mention those two verbs “demonized” or “have a demon.” I bring them up, just to remind the readers of what the other pericopes say in the four Gospels about demonization.
“healed”: see v. 16 for more comments. Yet, why does Matthew say the boy was healed after a demon expulsion? Mark’s version says the unclean spirit had caused the boy to be deaf and mute (Mark 9:25). So here we have an undesigned coincidence, one Gospel clarifying the words of another Gospel, but without a deliberate strategy, as each writer included data points that the others omitted.
19:
The disciples ask the question I would. Why couldn’t we cast it out or expel it? Of course they asked him privately, in case he was going to rebuke them, as he had just done in v. 16. But he also sets before them a task or mission of faith, which is both intimidating and encouraging at one time (for me, at least).
20:
First let me say that some manuscripts add: “This kind do not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Mark’s version says that this kind comes out only by prayer, and some manuscripts add fasting. We can combine prayer and fasting to build our faith. Pray for even small faith to expel demons. Fast, if necessary. Remember that one of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor. 12:7-11 is faith. Pray that God would distribute it by his Spirit, right when you need it.
Now let’s return to this verse in Matthew.
“small faith”: it is a compound word and a noun, which removes it from the adjective “little faith.” There are other Greek cognates (related), and Matthew counts for four of five of them: 6:30; 8:26; 14:1; 16:8. His favorite word in a context like this one.
In contrast, faith is needed. Now let’s look at the noun faith. It is pistis (pronounced peace-teace or piss-tiss), and it is used 243 times. Its basic meaning is the “belief, trust, confidence,” and it can also mean “faithfulness” and “trustworthy” (Mounce p. 232). It is directional, and the best direction is faith in God (Mark 11:22; 1 Thess. 1:8; 1 Pet. 1:21; Heb. 6:1) and faith in Jesus (Acts 3:16; 20:21; 24:24; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 1:15; Col. 1:4; 1 Tim. 3:13). Believing (verb) and faith (noun) is very important to God. It is the language of heaven. We live on earth and by faith see the invisible world where God is. We must believe he exists; then we must exercise our faith to believe he loves us and intends to save us. We must have saving faith by trusting in Jesus and his finished work on the cross.
Word Study on Faith and Faithfulness
“I tell you the truth”:
“mountain”: it is a symbol of insurmountable obstacles in our lives. We speak to the mountain, and God removes it. However, we need to be careful about taking it literally, as if we can move Mt. Everest by our speaking.
Once we have faith the size of a mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible for us. This too is a general statement. We need to be careful of over-applying it, so we believe we can jump from the temple in Jerusalem or spend money carelessly, put ourselves in massive debts, and demand God to bail us out. If he did bail you out without your learning how to manage your household budget, you may plunge yourself in debt again. The miracle would happen when you improve your godly skill in handling money. With that said, I have heard many stories, for example, about genuine miracles of provision and angelic protection when lives were about to be lost. God can work miracles for those who genuinely need them!
So how does Jesus answer their request and instruct them to build their faith? In effect he tells them they don’t need to increase their faith by working it up and following a formula. All they need is a very small degree of faith, and then miracles will happen. This answer implies that the apostles sometimes had faith because they saw healings and demon expulsion (Matt. 10:8; Luke 9:1; 10:17). So just have even a little bit of faith. Don’t worry about putting it on steroids. God and the Word and constant prayer will cause it to grow.
Next, Jesus says to speak out the order or command. So Jesus tells them, “speak!” or “say!” It is not merely “you say” or “you speak.” No. Just do it. Just speak it out. No, don’t boss God around. “Lord, I command thee to do what I want and when I want it!” Instead, just say, “Lord, I pray over my life what the Scriptures teach!” And then be specific, by the Word, which may support your godly desire or oppose your selfish desire. Be open to have your desires transformed. James 4:7 says to surrender or submit to God, and then resist the devil, and he will flee. Gal. 2:20 and 5:24 speak of crucifying our flesh. Your selfish desire will flee, too.
Commanding the mountain—and no doubt the mountain they had just climbed was visible in the background—is a visual image of a spiritual truth. It’s a metaphor. Any deeply and stubbornly rooted thing in your life that is an obstacle to your growth and God accomplishing his promise in your life can be removed with prayer. Speak to it to go over there, from here to there.
Renewalists love verses like this one because they love to confess out loud and speak out and pray out loud. This is solid teaching. Nothing shall be impossible to us. Personally, my prayer life is done with an open voice, when I take my prayer walks.
Lord, give me even a small amount of faith.
Let’s never forget that faith rests on the will of God. We Renewalists must be very careful about commanding God or things in nature to happen because we want them to. Even Jesus said he does what he sees the Father doing: Jesus “can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son does also” (John 5:19). Extra-super-confident Word-of-Faith teachers say they read the Word and understand what the will of God is, so they can command things. Part of that is true because of what Jesus just said in v. 20, but partly certain excessive Word-of-Faith teachers often misinterpret Scriptures which seem to indicate they can boss God around, like humans calling things into existence. (They base this on Rom. 4:17, but the verse clearly says God is the one who calls things into existence.) Faith-filled and Spirit-filled Christians must get a personal word from God. They must abide in Christ and his words abide in him so that they can hear from God about each individual and unique case. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (John 15:7). They must not launch out on their own and believe that God shall and must heal everyone, and if he didn’t, then the sick persons must not have had enough faith or spoken the right confession out loud. Somehow it’s their fault. No.
Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?
In my own life, I have heard from God that a sickness in a relative was “not a sickness unto death.” She has been cancer free for a long time (over a decade and a half, if I recall). I also received a personal word that another relative was going to be taken home, so I should not pray for his healing (he died a few days later). No amount of commanding and pleading and rebuking and decreeing and declaring would have altered the outcome. And to be honest, I have seemingly heard from God about yet a third relative and believed God would heal him, but he died. I was going through a time of deception in my life, but even in this case I relented and realized in his last hours that he would not be healed. I had been deceived, but I don’t give up on healing because of this disappointment (even after another relative lectured me about how wrong I was). It’s in the Word. I never give up on the clear teaching of Scripture. People need to do what Jesus said in this passage and actively do faith, not pull back or go inside their shells like a turtle and give up. Disappointments happen down here on earth. It’s the human condition.
Yes, healing is in the atonement, but not everyone will be healed in their current bodies when God says that the ultimate healing is for them to be taken from the broken-down earth-suits and brought into his presence, where there is no more disease or brokenness—the ultimate healing, also won for us in the atonement.
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time?
Pray for healing fearlessly and with active faith! Then leave the results in God’s hands.
See my posts about Satan in the area of systematic theology:
Bible Basics about Satan and Demons and Victory Over Them
Bible Basics about Deliverance
Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling
GrowApp for Matt. 17:14-20
1. Has God set you free of a demonic influence in your life that came through drugs or witchcraft or some other deception?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 