Mark 7:31-37 "He Has Done All Things Well"

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

It’s such a blessing seeing the kids dismissed and knowing we have teachers who love them and love teaching them God’s word.

I would ask you to pray about being one of those loving adults who can pour into the next generation.

We have opportunities to serve with our 6-11 year olds and for someone to hold and play with the babies.

I did this for many years, and it’s such a blessing to play a part in the spiritual formation of the next generation.

Please see Debbie for more details.

Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 7. Mark 7:31-37 today… finishing out the chapter.

Last time… Jesus ended His Great Galilean ministry and left Capernaum…

And head into the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon with His disciples.

Two ancient cities that are first mentioned in Genesis and Joshua… and still exist today in modern day Lebanon…

The Bible is filled with TRUE cities and archeological evidence to back it.

Jesus hoped to enter Tyre and Sidon anonymously, but word went out and a Syro-Phoenician woman came begging Jesus to heal her daughter who was severely demon possessed.

A horrendous plague that no human should ever experience, but which probably came about because it was common practice in that society to engage in pagan rituals.

The common practices of society may be accepted, but that does not make them wise… nor in alignment with God.

Jesus and this mother had quite the conversation… Jesus at first was silent… then let her know that His ministry, at this time, was prioritized to the Jews...

To which she worshiped Jesus and said, “Lord, help me!”

And then Jesus said, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

And, this encouraged her further, as she saw a place for herself in the house, and with the family.

She was not asking for a seat at the table, she was satisfied simply being in the house and gleaning even a crumb from the master’s table.

It was a fantastic passage about persistence in prayer and humility.

And, her amazing faith and persistence melted the heart of Jesus… if this were a test, she passed with flying colors…

For Matthew recorded Jesus saying, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Today, Jesus departs from that coastal area of Tyre and Sidon…

And, He and His disciples head to yet another Gentile area… the Decapolis mostly to the East and Southeast of the Sea of Galilee.

There, Jesus will heal a deaf and mute man in a most unorthodox way.

And, the people will be astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well” which is our message title for today.

Let’s Pray!

In reverence for God’s word, please stand as I read our passage today.

Mark 7:31-37 “Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Praise God for His word. Please be seated.

So we find ourselves today looking at an account of Jesus that only Mark details.

Matthew 15:29-31 mentions Jesus “skirted the Sea of Galilee” and healed many… which seems to parallel this account here in Mark, but no other Gospel writer mentions the specifics of this deaf and mute man… nor this rather unusual method of healing by Jesus.

As mentioned in our Intro message to the Gospel of Mark… it’s thought that Mark was a disciple of Peter… Mark was not likely physically present during this scene, but would have heard about this encounter through Peter and then recorded it as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So, this scene today, must have had an impact on Peter. There was something memorable to him…

If I had to guess it was the uniqueness of this healing… and the intimate tenderness… the compassion Jesus seems to display even non-verbally… loudly and clearly communicating, but without words…

Years later, Peter must have been talking to John Mark, and the Holy Spirit drew to remembrance this moment and the things Jesus did…

Did Peter say something like, “I remember this one time when we were in the Decapolis… and our Lord took this man aside who could not hear or speak. And, yet Jesus was able to communicate so clearly to the man.”

And, Jesus can do that because our Lord knows each one of us so intimately… and so personally…

In Luke 12:6-7, Jesus encouraged His disciples saying, “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? [meaning they have very little financial value] And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

We are so intimately known by God that He knows something about us that most of us don’t even know ourselves… the very number of hairs on your head.

And ladies… if your husband is bald… I don’t want to see you nudging him with your elbow.

Maybe he can count the three hairs he has left, but God still knows him deeper than he even knows himself.

Which is just a fascinating thought.

Well… that was a lot to say about this account only being detailed in Mark’s Gospel… at this rate… we won’t be home until dinner!

Let’s take a moment and get grounded in our geography… I have a map of the Decapolis Region…

This is a map from the Encyclopedia Britannica and they do a nice job listing the TEN CITIES of the Decapolis… which match perfectly with a quote naming those Ten Cities from a Bible Dictionary… that references Pliny the Elder… a Roman historian.

And the Gk word Dĕkapŏlis is a compound word Dĕka meaning Ten… and pŏlis meaning city.

A few examples in modern English…

A Metropolis is a “large city.”

A chain of continuous cities… like from Boston to D.C. -or- L.A. to San Diego… is called… anyone?… a megalopolis.

And they are mega-congested…

Queen Anne of Great Britain had a city named after her… Anne’s City… which became the capital city of Maryland… which is… Annapolis.

You get the idea…

So, the Decapolis… these Ten Cities East of the Jordan river were a “group of city-states where Greeks settled following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the area in the fourth century BC.”…

And, this remained a highly Gentile area as Jesus and the Disciples again entered this area.

You may recall that Jesus and the Disciples first entered this area back in Mark Chapter 5.

They sailed through a storm on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat after a long day of ministry…

And, He calmed the storm upon the disciples coming to Him… which we need constant reminder to do…

Then the stepped off the boat in the country of the Gadarenes… which is in the region of the Decapolis.

Their welcoming party was a demoniac… Legion… a man tortured by thousands of demons… whom Jesus would cast out into a herd of swine.

And, that herd of 2,000 pigs ran violently down a steep place into the sea and drowned.

This was an offense in this Grecian area… Greek cults were known to use pigs for sacrifice.

So when the people of the city and country hear about this… despite seeing the demon-possessed man clothed and in his right mind…

They were afraid… and pleaded with Jesus to depart from their region.

That was the response of the people the last time Jesus was in the Decapolis region…

Please leave… you’re not welcome here.

D.A. Carson stated, “They preferred pigs to persons, swine to the Savior.”

There was a lot of money tied up in the hog business, and it would seem at this time… bringing home the bacon was a greater priority… than bringing home a brother.

And sadly, Jesus honors their request and departs with no great move of the Spirit amongst the people… no significant teachings… just this one unnamed man healed.

NOW… fast forward to Mark 7… a few months later… and what is the response of the people?

Well… here in Mark 7 we don’t get a clear sense of whether the people are still hostile towards Jesus —or— if they had a change of heart…

We do read about how they brought this one deaf man…

V33 does state there was a multitude present, but we don’t know much about that large crowd… except that Jesus took the deaf man aside privately from them.

And then, in V37 the “they” in this account… presumably friends of the deaf man… were astonished by measure, saying, “He has done all things well.”

So, there is at least a nod of approval from this smaller group.

Where we do get a sense of this multitude… and it is a positive response… is in Matthew 15:29-31 which reads…

“Jesus departed from there [Tyre and Sidon… our previous account], skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. [In the Decapolis] 30 Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed [or crippled], and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. 31 So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”

That’s quite the contrast from the first visit to the Decapolis. Instead of asking Jesus to leave… now they are flocking to Him… bringing all their loved ones struggling with various afflictions…

And, as Jesus healed these many Gentiles… these many Greeks… V31 stated “they glorified the God of Israel.”

Which is another contrast… not just internally in the Decapolis, but also contrasted with the scribes and Pharisees from a few scenes earlier…

They too saw and heard of the many miracles Jesus was performing… which should have testified to their hearts that Messiah had come… but the religious leader only repeatedly opposed Jesus…

Surely they knew the Messianic passage in Isa 35:5-6 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing.”

Interesting enough the word “dumb” in that verse… in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT)… is the same word for “impediment” here in Mark 7… a word only used 1x in the NT… seemingly linking the passages together.

By using this rare Greek word Mark seems to allude back to Isa 35:5.

The Religious leaders should have responded like the Gentiles did… as we read in Matthew… “they glorified the God of Israel.”

Which would have stung Matthew’s Jewish readers… to read Gentiles glorifying God… when the religious did not.

That verse in Isaiah… when the Disciples saw all these healing unfolding in the Decapolis… surely they must have thought back to that verse… which would further confirm to them that Jesus was Messiah.

The Gentiles wouldn’t know this verse… and yet, interesting, in His 2nd Coming… they received Him…

So, the big question… WHAT CHANGED between Jesus’ first visit to the Decapolis… where they asked Him to leave AND the second visit to the Decapolis… where they are now welcoming Him… flocking to Him with their sick… and they are glorifying the God of Israel?

The answer is found in looking back to the moment Jesus was asked to leave the first time…

Jesus was getting ready to leave, but we read in Mark 5:18-20 “And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”

Jesus cast the demons out… and the man begs Jesus to be with Him, but Jesus says, “NO”… there was something more important for the man to do first…

And, I imagine it was difficult for the man when Jesus told him, “No.”

Can you imagine? Jesus heals you from a demonic plague… something most of us will never be able to comprehend…

And, then you beg Jesus to follow Him and He says, “No.”

I imagine that was hard to receive. What could be better than following Jesus.

I’ll tell you what’s better. Being obedient to His command is better.

Jesus tells the man to share his testimony and about the Lord’s compassion…

And, this was so much better, because… I can’t fully confirm, but I believe this man’s obedience to not go with Jesus, but to stay and share His testimony… is why Jesus received this warm reception in Mark 7.

And, how many got saved because of this one man’s testimony?

Your testimony is powerful… and it’s a sermon all of you should be able to preach. It’s your story of what Jesus has done for you.

And, so that what this man did… he proclaimed in the Decapolis… our scene today… all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”

Jesus sailed across the sea and touched only ONE LIFE… and from that ONE LIFE many others would hear about Jesus because… the one man was faithful to obey Jesus’ command… to tell others ‘what great things the Lord had done for him...”

And, now Jesus is back… and no one is shouting… “Here comes the pig killer!”

No one is asking Him to leave.

So, as I read V32… I imagine this to happen at the same time as what we read in Matt 15… multitudes of people are gathering bringing “lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.”

And, then V32 “they”… and we don’t know who “they” are, but I imagine they are connected… friends or family of this deaf man who has an impediment in his speech.

Because they beg Jesus to put His hands on him.

Desperation typically leads to begging… and typically those desperate for another are close to that one.

And, these friends… like the friends who lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof… decide they must get their friend to Jesus.

And, they beg Jesus for healing.

And, this is a good reminder for us… to be friends like these friends…

Are we desperate for our friends to get in front of Jesus?

Do we do all we can to get our friends in front of Jesus?

Maybe that’s bringing them to church… or if they won’t come… maybe it’s taking church to them…

I bet if you asked your Pastor to grab coffee or lunch with your friend, he would do so.

Maybe your church could organize a group of people to help your friend with a house project… just to love on them.

Maybe you’ve tried all this and more, and nothing has worked… and still you can get your friend in front of Jesus through the power of intercessory prayer.

However you see fit… get them before the Lord, and ask the Lord to give them eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to perceive…

Be a Godly friend…

This man in Mark 7 was deaf by definition, he was “blunted” of hearing or speech…

And he had a speech impediment, by def. “speaking with difficulty” meaning he could hardly talk… or he was dumb.

If he was born deaf, this speech impediment may have resulted from him never having heard sound correctly…

Or, he may have some other physical deformity causing the issue…

And, in the first century not being able to hear… and not being able to speak… with very low literacy rates… may have made communication tremendously difficult.

There is evidence of sign language of existing during this time… one would hope there was a method to communicate… but we don’t know!

This deaf man could have VERY LITTLE to NO IDEA who Jesus is, except from that which he observed.

And, even then… if this deaf man observed people coming to Jesus willingly… and then crying and being joyful after their encounter with Him…

One can imagine that this man would not hesitate to come to the one who brings smiles… and tears of joy…

And, then in V33… Jesus takes this man aside from the multitude…

And, you can just picture how things quiet down a bit…

Not for the deaf man, everything was quiet for him, but perhaps for the disciples…

And, this scene seems to slow down with those words… Jesus “took him aside”…

The scene feels more intimate… Just the man and Jesus and their closest people…

Something special… something unique happened here that Peter would never forget.

Sometimes the most intimate times we can have with Jesus is when we let Him take us aside…

To that quiet place… as Jesus so often modeled getting alone with the Father…

And in Matthew 6:6 Jesus exhorted the disciples NOT to pray hypocritically and seek attention from people…instead He said… “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

How many times… when in solitude with the Lord… does He meet you there?

Don’t rob yourself of these intimate moments with the Lord for the sake of anything else.

And, so, Jesus takes this man aside… away from the multitudes… and then Jesus does the strangest thing…

The end of V33 says He, “… put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.”

I want you to hear me clearly… Here at Calvary Chapel Lake City… we will lay our hands on you in prayer… and we will even anoint you with oil and pray for you…

But, I’m not putting my fingers in your ears, touching your tongue and spitting.

And, you’re welcome… because I’m pretty sure you don’t want that either.

And, I’m glad… I’m not sure I would know what to do if someone requested this.

“Hey… Pastor… can you do that thing Jesus did in Mark 7? Stick your fingers in my ears, spit and touch my tongue?”

I’m sorry… I got a thing about ear wax… I’m not doing it. Jesus was a better man than me.

They didn’t even have Q-Tips in the 1st century…

Don’t worry… Fellowship lunch isn’t until next week…

I don’t have an explanation for you as to why Jesus healed this man in this way.

But, if I had to guess… and I do… Globally speaking… I think Jesus could look down through the ages and see all the Snake Oil Salesmen who would pop up and try to formulize and commercialize how Jesus healed.

But there was No formula. Jesus healed in different ways to make it clear that He was not limited to a pattern… or a method… or a traditional way…

He can heal however He wishes… Jesus sets a pattern of NO pattern…

Jesus healed by the laying on of hands at times…

Sometimes He merely spoke and the person was healed…

In two other occasions, people simply touched the hem of His garment and were healed.

One time Jesus anointed a blind man’s eyes with clay… but in Mark 8 Jesus skips the clay and directly spits on a blind man’s eyes and then lay His hands on him…

Could you imagine if Pastor’s did that today?

Might I suggest that if you’re gonna spit in someone’s face, you better be really confident you can heal them…

Otherwise… they might lay their hands on you… if you get what I’m saying…

One scholar shared a thought on all this spitting and wrote, “Roman writers and Jewish rabbis considered saliva to be a valid treatment for blindness.”

The same scholar wrote, “Jesus offered a physical action as a means of raising their expectations and focusing their faith on Himself.”

Chuck Smith called this “activating one’s faith”… like when the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment… and her faith was released.

And, some of that might play into why at times Jesus healed multitudes, sometimes only a few or one… and at other times none.

And, why Jesus moves the way He moved is a mystery, but I do believe… even in the trials… He wants to draw out of us a deeper faith…

He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

And, instead of giving up on faith… Paul boasted in his infirmities and took pleasure in his infirmities… and persecutions… and distresses, for Christ’s sake. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Going back to V33… consider what we know about this man… he is deaf and his speech is impaired…

And, it would seem that Jesus takes a few steps to communicate to this man that He understands his condition and his anguish…

Jesus touches the ears that don’t work… and the tongue that was blunted… and spits possibly to incite faith…

And, look at V34, Jesus ‘looked up to heaven, and sighed...’

Possibly communicating His intent to heal…

Possibly communicating He understood the deep despair in this man’s soul…

Messiah was “A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” according to Isa 53.

How many times had the man looked up to heaven? And yet, he remained deaf and mute… how many times had this man sighed in frustration or hopeless despair?

Jesus understood.

The word of God is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight… ” (Heb 4)…

He knows all… including the burdens we bear.

Maybe Jesus looked up and sighed reflecting on the brokenness of His creation that He made perfect in the garden…

In the beginning, life was never intended to be this way.

Why did Jesus weep as he walked to the tomb of Lazarus… knowing He would raise him from the dead?

The tragic consequence of sin is something that makes our Lord weep and sigh for sure.

In Rom 8:18 Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Rev 21:4 gives us a glimpse of that yet future time when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

But until that time… God moves in mysterious ways… healing as He sees fit… and for His purposes…

In 2012… God moved and miraculously healed my wife of a 2.5’ long blood clot…

It set the stage for me being delivered from my bondage to alcohol two months later…

And then my calling into ministry…

And, what a ripple effect did all of that send through our church… Calvary Chapel Ellicott City in Maryland.

Unbeknownst to us… right around that same time… a young lady in the Philippines would contract a bacteria… a chronic infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Highly contagious, therefore the treatment is free at the local clinic… and it’s highly treatable.

That is… if you get the correct diagnosis. Unfortunately for her, she was misdiagnosed as having cancer.

And, while our story of ministry was beginning… her story of suffering began...

Fast forward to April 2016, my family… now having been in the Philippines for almost two years…

One day, when we were distributing clothes and school supplies to the locals… we were asked to bring supplies to the home of the young lady…

I’ll never forget that day as she hobbled out of her hut. I’ve never seen a more pathetic looking person.

I felt so much compassion, like I imagine Jesus felt when he encountered person after person with leprosy… and blindness… and people like this deaf and mute man in Mark 7.

I asked her name, and her name was “Mercy”…

I have a few pictures and I was very selective on which ones to show…

In the slide you only see the day she was hospitalized… and the scar from 9 months later… plus some family pictures with my and her family.

If I showed you some of the close ups of the wound on her chest… I fear some of you might walk out not being able to handle the reality of her suffering.

I should write a book about Her story and her recovery… how she was left to rot in her bamboo hut for 3 or 4 years untreated… misdiagnosed…

Sometimes we THINK God has forgotten us… I imagine she did… but He did not.

Her fellow villagers shouted, “She’s not worthy”… but God saw her worth.

Her own family wouldn’t even take her in… they ostracized her…

So, one day God orchestrated my family to visit her bamboo hut… to bring hope to the hopeless… to share the Gospel… and to medically intervene…

I know there were ripple effects in that village over the next year… as Mercy gained her life and her strength back.

And, there are still ripple effects in my heart today when I reflect back on that time.

And, so while God sighs and weeps along with us over the suffering and brokenness of this world that is fallen from glory…

God can still uses suffering for His purposes…

The epistle of Peter addresses Christians who suffered and explained that suffering may refine our character…

1 Pet 1:6-8 states “… though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love.”

Suffering can give us a unique testimony that allows us to reach others who we may normally not reach…

In 1967, a 17-year old girl had a diving accident that left her a quadriplegic…

Her name… Joni Eareckson Tada, and despite her lack of mobility and daily pain, her and her husband, Ken, have been able to minister to thousands of disabled people.

2 Cor 1:3-4 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Joni Eareckson channeled her trial into a ministry to comfort those suffering in the same fashion.

Suffering can also help us draw closer to the Lord.

I think about the suffering that Corrie Ten Boom and the entire Ten Boom family suffered by the Nazi’s in WWII.

Some 800 Jews were physically saved by their efforts…

And, many people were spiritually saved when the Ten Boom family was arrested and led bible studies in concentration camps.

Many were drawing closer to the Lord during these unimaginable trials…

Corrie Ten Boom once said, "You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have."

One more point on how the Lord can use trials and suffering for His purposes… Suffering reminds us that the world is not our home… heaven is our home.

I like this quote, “When life is comfortable, eternity is only a glimmer far in the future. But when Christians suffer… eternity starts to become the brightest light in their lives.”

In the NLT version, Heb 13:14 states, “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

And, so… YES… there is good that can come from the trial and from suffering…

But, I don’t want to dismiss the difficulty of being in the midst of a trial.

Sometimes it seems like there is no way out… and life becomes hazy… like living in a fog…

That was the state Mercy was in when I met her.

But, then came that day… the day came for her… a day came for my wife… a day came for me…

And, if you’re waiting for that day… while I don’t know the Lord’s will for your life… happily I would like to pray with you and intercede on your behalf for that day to come for you as well.

Back in Mark 7… at the end of V34… we have this moment captured… for this deaf and mute man…

We read Jesus “… said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

Jesus speaks in Aramaic words that literally mean “Be opened.”

Now… who is Jesus speaking to in V34? The man is deaf, so he can’t hear…

Or, were these the very first words he ever heard?

Certainly, Jesus’ divinity is on display as He speaks to His creation… these ears that Jesus made are commanded to now function…

When Jesus speaks to His creations, it adheres to His word.

Remember when Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!”

The disciples responded, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

And, now Jesus once again speaks to His creation… with his disciples present…

And, maybe that’s why Jesus spoke the words, “Be opened!”

So, His disciples could once again witness Jesus’ power over all things under heaven.

And, discipling His disciples was certainly part of the intentional ministry Jesus had as He was now in His third and final year of ministry.

In V35, the miracle occurs. Not is a slow phase of months of recovery, but in a dramatic fashion… as evidenced by the word “Immediately.”

V35 states, “Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.”

As soon as Jesus said the words, he was healed… he heard sound and what even more amazing… is he didn’t need to learn to talk.. “he spoke plainly” meaning “rightly or correctly”…

He didn’t need to learn language… or how to communicate…

He probably spoke more proper than his friends.

Sometimes God moves like this… immediately. When God delivered me… it was immediate.

And, sometimes the miracle is gradual. When Mercy in the Philippines was healed… it was a gradual healing over the course of months or more.

I think the miracle for her was not the medical treatment, but the fact that help came at all. That one day a few Americans showed up at her bamboo hut… when she had long since given up.

In many ways, we can be like this deaf man… or once were like this deaf man… and worse… I was blind as well…

I know at one point I didn’t have the ability to hear the Lord… I didn’t have the ability to spiritually discern… there were spiritual scales upon my eyes…

"…something like scales” fell from Paul’s eyes as well when he was filled with the Holy Spirit…

If you’re here today, and you hear the word, but it doesn’t move you… it doesn’t speak to your soul…

I can tell you that the word is not boring… and it’s not dead…

“… the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword...”

And, I don’t think the issue is with the Man of God… not this man of God… or any other who is rightly dividing the word of truth.

The issue is likely a spiritual issue. Before my miracle of deliverance, alcohol was not my only problem.

Spiritual blindness and dumbness was an issue as well.

I had no interest or passion for the word. I was not leading my family spiritually… which… HUSBANDS… that is your responsibility.

Come to men’s bible study or see me if you don’t know how.

But, when God healed… He healed me completely…

Reviving me spiritually… inciting passion and understanding for the word in my heart and my mind… and delivering me from the bottle.

Some years later I was reading in Proverbs and found my testimony clear as day…

Pro 1:23 “Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.”

Immediately… Aug 5th, 2012… God fulfilled His word in me.

And, when God moved… healing this man… restoring his hearing and speech… what we read in V36 is not surprising… “Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.”

When people publicized Jesus’ miracles, it often led to Him not being able to move freely as so many would flock to Him.

And, sometimes they wanted to raise Him up as a political Messiah… especially in Jewish areas… which was not God’s will at this time… and not on God’s divine schedule.

But, it is difficult… not to proclaim His name when you have been radically touched by Him.

I haven’t stopped talking boldly about Jesus since He radically changed my life in 2012.

Everyone needs to know about Jesus… and I’m further convinced that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is an empowering to be a witness for Jesus that every Christian should understand and pray for.

But, let’s also take note that what happens here in V36 is disobedience. Jesus commanded them to be silent…

And, they told everyone… Well intentioned or not… they defied God, and that is not acceptable.

If you are out in the world… and you feel like the brakes are being pumped by the Holy Spirit… slow down.

I gave a guy a jump recently… his car battery was dead…

And, in my small talk… there was no response of any kind to spiritual matters…

He knew I was a Pastor… and I was helping him out.

And, I felt like the Holy Spirit didn’t want me to go any further than that.

My sense was this man was hardened to spiritual matters.

And, so for him… perhaps a Pastor helping him out, but not being forceful… was the witness he needed in that moment.

Listen and obey if the Spirit is telling you to be silent.

Wrapping up… V37 “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

I doubt the people even knew the truth of the words they spoke… at this time before Jesus had even faced the cross.

Their feeling were appropriate… they were “astonished beyond measure” or “completely amazed.”

And, their words were appropriate. “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Again, this is likely a Messianic allusion, wrapped in a most appropriate concluding summary.

And, could we not say the same in our lives. “He has done all things well.”

I look back on my life and I say, “Yes and Amen.”

Despite suffering… despite pain caused by others… despite personal mistakes and the ramifications thereof… or medical trials…

Whatever the case may be… until my life ends, I hold to proclaim, “He has done all things well.”

No matter what life throws my way… “He has done all things well.”

These are words that we will fully realize when we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.

Worship team, you can come.

I want to close with a story some of you know…

It’s the story of “Horatio Spafford.”

Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer and real estate investor, married to Anna, with five kids.

In 1871, tragedy struck when both their young son died of illness and the Great Chicago Fire decimated much of Mr. Spafford’s business.

In 1873, the family decided to sail to England for vacation, but a business issue delayed Horatio Spafford.

Anna and their four daughter sailed ahead, but while crossing the Atlantic, their ship collided with another…

Anna hurriedly brought her girls to the deck, and knelt and prayed with “Annie, Margaret Lee, Bessie and Tanetta”… praying that if it were God’s will… that He would spare them or to make them willing to endure whatever awaited them.

226 people lost their lives including all four of the Spafford girls.

Miraculously, Horatio’s wife, Anna, was found floating on wreckage and rescued...

Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

Horatio immediately set sail for England, and according to Bertha Spafford Vester, a daughter born after the tragedy…

Horatio wrote these words while on that voyage…

When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll- Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know It is well, it is well with my soul.

It may not always be possible to have life without suffering…

But supernaturally, we may be able to have “the peace of God, with surpasses all understanding” guarding our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Horatio Spafford modeled this well.

And, we can too, when we testify, “He has done all things well.”

Let’s Pray!

If you need prayer for anything today, feel free to find me in the front row as we sing this last song.

It would be my honor to pray with and for you!

Go this week proclaiming “He has done all things well.”

God bless you as you go.