Mark 9:14 (NKJV) 14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.
Yesterday we looked at Mark 9 with a focus on verse 19 where Jesus pointed to a problem that was beyond just this particular father’s unbelief.
Mark 9:19 (NKJV) 19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”
I have been thinking recently about the word generation. We tend to use this as a divisive term. We focus on particular age groups. We have the millennials, the x generation people and the boomers born after WWII. Although there is a truth that each physical generation responds to different methods, this term should not be divisive.
The Greek word here does not mean what we think of as a generation. It means an age. I heard my son say it this way, “A generation is all the people alive at a given time.” We might say that a generation is all those alive during a particular dealing of God. We can look at the generations of the nation of Israel for instance. For many thousands of years God dealt with man according to the covenant of Abraham though the Jewish nation.
At any given time, there were people of every age group, from babies to the very old, alive. They were all part of the age, or generation, of the nation of Israel. Each age group was a little different. Each age group played a part in that “generation.” Since that generation, or age, lasted many lifetimes, people’s roles in the generation of the nation of Israel changed.
When Jesus came, the generation of the nation of Israel was at an end. Man entered the generation, or age, of the earthly ministry of Jesus. This generation only lasted three years but it was a particular time marked by how God was dealing with humanity. On the day of Pentecost, a new generation, or age, began. The generation of the church was born.
We are 2000 years into the “church generation.” Over the centuries people have changed. Many have been born as babies in this generation, grown to adulthood, progressed to old age and finally entered into that generation that will never die in the presence of God. It is true that in a cultural and physical sense there have been many changes in these 2000 years. Technology, culture and lifestyle has changed. This has accelerated incredibly in the last 100 years. However, if you are alive today you are still part of the church generation and some things never change.
Within the church “generation” have been many “sub-generations.” There has been the age of the book of acts, the age of apostasy, the Lutheran age, the Methodist revival, the Pentecostal age, and the Charismatic renewal. Every age has been part of the church generation. There are the physical aspects we mentioned above that apply to the different periods the church has existed. However, what truly determines a generation, or sub-generation for that matter, is not what is happening in the natural. What determines a generation in God’s eyes is what is happening in the spirit.
I said all that to say this. Jesus was not talking to the father when we spoke of a faithless generation. He was talking to all of who were part of the generation of the earthly ministry of Jesus. For 400 hundred years before Jesus there had been no manifestation of power and presence of God. The generation of the nation of Israel knew only the form that grew out of the power of Moses’ ministry.
Just as when Moses was on the mountain at Sinai and Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration when the father came to him, the vehicle of the presence of God was gone and the voice of unbelief began to take hold in the people. That is what the devil always does.
How does this relate to our day? We are part of the church generation or age. In an eternal sense that is the only generation with which we should identify. However, there have been many moves of God, ages or generations, that have been a part of that generation. I listed them above. They represent the way God has manifested himself and how he has dealt with man in any given time period. Peter called them “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
Between each of these times of refreshing have been times, often decades, where there does not seem to be anything powerful or dynamic happening. In those times the voice of unbelief begins to work on the generation called the church. Just as we saw it work in the life of this father who simply wanted help for his son, in the times between refreshing the voice of unbelief works to convince the church that the supernatural God no longer does supernatural things.
This has manifested over the years in doctrines that say healing has passed away, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for today. In the 1960’s the American Baptist Seminary published a doctrine that said God is dead. This is the goal of the voice of unbelief. Denominational Christianity became increasingly powerless and irrelevant. Psychology, sociology and natural means took the place of the power of God as the source of success.
Success itself was redefined to mean everything from large numbers and political influence to impacting the community for good. That is not to say that any of these things is bad. However, Jesus did not establish the church to do those things. He established the church to win sons and daughters to God’s family. If we do not do that, we miss the whole point of why our generation, the church exists.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV) 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Jesus’ statement to the “generation” in Mark 19, was a declaration that the people and the culture of the generation of the nation of Israel had lost its way. They were faithless. This faithlessness manifested as soon as the vehicle for the power and presence was not available. His words tell us that should not have been the case.
Today, we live in one of those times between the refreshings that have come just as Peter said they would. Between the age of the book of acts and the reformation of Luther, there were more than a thousand years that we call the dark ages. It is my opinion that the last time of refreshing was the charismatic renewal.
We are all part of the generation called the church. No matter what our physical age or generation might be, we are all part of a “sub-generation” that is without any specific manifestation of the spirit. It does not matter how old we are in the natural, we all have a part to play in this generation. The voice of unbelief is trying very hard to create another “dark ages.” The thing that we need to remember is that Jesus came back from the mount of transfiguration. Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit always comes back!
He is coming to us again and the voice of unbelief cannot stop him. Take your place in the church generation and be a part of the next time of refreshing. Do not give in to the devil’s attempt to divide our generation by age. We are in this together and together we will see the greatest time of refreshing in history. It may be the one that ushers in a truly new generation.
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