Jesus Shows Us How to Minister to a Faithless Generation

David W Palmer

Jesus had been preparing his apprentices to take on the ministry he had been doing. Part of the way he did this was to train them, and then to send them on assignments so he could assess their progress and see where they needed further training.

Matthew 17 begins with Jesus ascending the Mount of Transfiguration with his inner circle, Peter, James, and John. Meanwhile, the remaining nine apprentices were confronted with a need. On their previous supervised mission, they had ministered healing and deliverance while out preaching the word. However, this time they encountered something they weren’t ready for:

(Matthew 17:14–16 NKJV) And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, {15} “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. {16} So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

The nine disciples—who didn’t go with Jesus, Peter, James, and John to the mountaintop—must have been very discouraged and extremely embarrassed by their failure to cure the son. Not only had they been stumped by the problem, but now the fact that they “could not cure him” was broadcast to Jesus and the whole multitude.

We can certainly see why they still needed Jesus with them to explain, coach, and train them some more. So what did Jesus do?

(Matthew 17:17 NKJV) Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? …”

Jesus’s response to this situation was swift and very strong. But this wasn’t coming from anger or frustration; he had just come down from his mountaintop transfiguration and his glorious meeting with Father, Moses, and Elijah. Jesus didn’t sin at any stage of his life, so this splendid shine wasn’t because he temporarily became holier, but it was certainly a divine moment when he shone forth in peaceful, holy oneness with God. So, no, this was not a fleshly outburst of anger or frustrated criticism; this was love speaking in its purest form; this was God’s holy Son, recently assured of his purpose to die for sinful and failed humanity, speaking with the same love and compassion that conveyed him to the cross.

So why did he say, “faithless and perverse generation,” and to whom did he direct it? Was it to his nine followers, who had done their best to bring healing and liberty to a suffering family in his name? Was it to the father and his son? Was it to the multitude of witnesses that day? Or was he speaking more generally to his whole contemporary generation?

A clue to the answer may be found in something that had happened a few chapters earlier. Hopefully, this incident was still fresh in the minds of the nine disciples:

(Matthew 13:57–58 NKJV) So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” {58} Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Jesus’s own example and recent history showed that the failure to receive from his ministry was because of the unbelief of the recipients. Furthermore, when he had sent his apprentices on their first supervised mission, he had said to them:

(Matthew 10:14–15 NKJV) “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. {15} Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Both of these examples show that a lack of receiving can occur when the recipients don’t receive the word, and thus exhibit unbelief. So it seems that Jesus was talking to the recipients more than to his close followers when he publicly declared, “O faithless and perverse generation …” After all, the nine disciples had at least enough faith in Jesus to follow him. They may have lacked great faith, but surely Jesus wouldn’t call his own chosen followers, “perverse.” Furthermore, because Jesus is completely guided by love in all he does; if he wanted to correct his disciples, I’m sure he would do it more privately (See: Mat. 18:15–17, Gal. 6:1).

Jesus called for the demonized boy to be brought to him:

(Matthew 17:18–21 NKJV) And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. {19} Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” {20} So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. {21} However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Clothed in Holy Spirit power, and fresh from his glorious mountaintop transfiguration, Jesus “rebuked”—severely reprimanded—the demon, and it came out of the boy. Naturally, his frustrated disciples asked him why they “could” not cast it out. Jesus’s answer about overcoming the demonic through “prayer and fasting” probably recalls events in his own life that took place before he called these apprentices to follow him:

(Matthew 4:1–2, 11 NKJV) Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. {2} And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, ... {11} Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Prior to his successful public ministry, Jesus had done his time of prayer and fasting—40 days. This successfully cleansed the heavens, so to speak: “the devil left … angels came.”

Describing the changed scenario that Jesus’s intercession produced, Luke says:

(Luke 4:13–14 NKJV) Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. {14} Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.

In Matthew, the Holy Spirit describes the situation in the whole region after Jesus’s time of fasting, prayer, and spiritual warfare in the wilderness:

(Matthew 4:16 DKJV) “The people who dwelt in darkness saw great light, and to them who sat in the region overshadowed by Death, light has risen (dawned).”

In other words, after the light-blocking influence of “Death” had been removed, God’s light reached those in desperate need of it. Anointed teaching, powerful preaching, revelation from heaven, healings, and miracles flowed.

When Jesus said, “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting,” dealing with the demonic spirit realm in advance is what he had in mind. I believe he wants us to follow his example in this. We note that he also said ministry success was dependent on faith: “Because of your unbelief.” Tomorrow ,we will look at his solution to unbelief and how he says to operate faith.

Today, let’s realize that we may encounter deep needs in people’s lives that we feel completely ill-equipped to fix successfully—even when we have the purest motives and heartfelt desire to minister in Jesus’s name under his anointing. The enemy would love to make us feel condemned, inadequate, at fault, or even like quitting altogether. But thankfully, we have the Greater One inside us guiding us into all truth. After all, it may be as much about the state of the recipients as it is about our level of preparedness.

If we need any further training, our Lord and Teacher will give us the specific instruction and information that we need. Meanwhile, Jesus shows us the problem, and the problem behind the problem: it’s the unbelieving generation, and the light-blocking work of that wicked spirit of Death; by definition, his objective is to cut off the flow of life coming from God’s Throne and the Lamb. (See: Rev. 22:1, also the verse below:)

(2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV) Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The first part of Jesus’s follow-up training for the disciples’ disappointment was to deal with the problem behind the problem first. Let’s do this too; let’s imitate his way of removing the light-blocking spirits before trying to release their captives. In other words, bind the strong man before plundering his goods and releasing his prisoners (See: Mark 3:27).

In truth, the problem was their failure to cleanse the heavens of the doubt-peddling, light-blocking, evil spirits that caused the lack of faith in what Jesus called the “unbelieving generation”; they were all still under the dark spiritual power of unbelief. Jesus’s solution to this—as he demonstrated himself—was prayer and fasting.

Let’s begin right now to cleanse this from the heavens first and then go in and liberate the captives.