The Restoration of the King

INTRO:

Celebrating Last week/Today/Next week.

Sr. Adult Appreciation | Infant/Child Dedication Service | Senior Recognition/Picnic

Blessing of the Generations in our Church

Happy Mother’s Day!

Grateful for all of the moms in our church.

You still have time to make them a card/get them a gift!

Here's how several elementary school students answered the following questions about moms:

Why did God make mothers? • She's the only one who knows where the Scotch tape is. • Mostly to clean the house. • To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers? • He used dirt, just like for the rest of us. • God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of? • God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world. . .and one dab of mean. • They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom? • We're related. • God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

God uses you Moms in a powerful way in the lives of your children & in the life of our Church family.

Context:

Mark 7:1-23 — “People are not ‘unclean’ (gentiles/sickness/death, etc.) B/C we are ALL defiled in the eyes of God”

Mark 7:15 “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Jesus embarks on a journey into Gentile territory.

It’s not clear why — Mark doesn’t explain — and other gospels also account this trip.

Maybe Jesus is providing the rest the Disciples & he needed — Mark 7:24 “And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.”

Possible the time was not right for him to be seized in Israel…

For whatever reason — he makes this journey (Could have been 8 months)

120 miles — “like going from Washington, D.C. to Richmond, Va, BY WAY OF PHILADELPHIA!”

MAP - PICTURE

Not by accident it comes in Mark’s Gospel after the encounter with the Pharisees & scribes — Declaring Gentiles are not ‘unclean’.

3 Events

Syrophonenician Woman — Read it last week

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man — Our story today

2nd Bread Miracle — Not preaching on this one

Jesus makes it clear — He has come to the Jews FIRST — but there is grace enough for the Gentiles — 2nd half of ACTS —> New Testament

TRUTH:

Mark 7:31–37 ESV

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Pray

3 Aspects of this Passage:

1) Jesus Sees the NEED, 2) Jesus MEETS the Need, 3) The Crowd Recognizes the POWER of Jesus.

1. Jesus Sees the Need. (vs. 31-34)

Mark 7:31–32 “Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.”

Region of the Decapolis — Mark 5 — Healing of the man with the Legion of Demons — Sends him out to share (Effective?)

People bring this man to Jesus — Mark 2:1-12 (Jesus heals the Paralytic)

Even the Gentiles of heard of Him — why he couldn’t find a place of rest!

3 Signs of Jesus’ Compassion — Mark 7:33–34 “And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.””

Took him aside privately.

Because of the man’s disabilities — it’s likely a crowd would be overwhelming.

This healing is NOT for them - It is for him!

Spoke his language.

Jesus is communication with this man via sign-language.

“Put his fingers into his ears” — Your hearing.

“Touched his tongue” — Your speech.

Jesus inhabits this man’s situation — Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses”

Looking up to heaven, he sighed.

Looking up to heaven — the same action Jesus does before he blesses the bread (feed the 5,000)

Even here, in Gentile territory, Jesus is signifying where His power comes from.

He sighed — The language here is tied to feeling.

A few possible thoughts:

Jesus felt the pain of this man

Jesus felt the pain of the Fall

2. Jesus Meets the Need. (vs. 35)

Mark 7:35 “And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”

Restored his hearing…

Restored his ability to speak (communicate)…

“His tongue was released” — Bondage broken.

“Spoke plainly” — The way that he was meant to.

Mark alluding to Isaiah 35 — Mark does not do this often — but when he does we should pay close attention — often a Pillar.

Mark uses a very rare word of the man’s “Speech impediment” — mogilalon (moy-le-lon)

Only here in the NT

Only in Isaiah 35:6 in the OT — turn with me to Isaiah 35 —>

This is essentially the last chapter of the First part of Isaiah (Clear as mud?)

Follows chapters declaring God’s judgement of Edom, Egypt, Tyre, Israel, and Jerusalem.

ESV Heading — The Ransomed Shall Return

Speaks of abundance and life returning to a desolate place, seeing the glory of the Lord, “he will come and save you”

Isaiah 35:5–6 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened (Ch. 8 of Mark) , and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;”

Mark is declaring that the “Day of the Lord” is here, in Jesus — The Kingdom of God — the Conquering King!

1) Jesus Sees the Need, 2) Jesus Meets the Need.

3. The Crowd Recognizes the POWER of Jesus. (vs. 36-37)

Mark 7:36–37 “And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.””

Jesus seems to have been trying to lay low in this trip — he entered house where no one would know him — he pulls the man aside privately — he charges them to tell no one.

But just as always happens — they can’t keep the news to themselves…

I think Jesus is showing us a principle in these commands to keep quiet after he performs a miracle — B/C no one ever obeys…

You mean the Son of God couldn’t keep people QUIET if he wanted to? — Of Course he Could!

I think we see that when we truly encounter the Power of God through Jesus Christ — WE SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CONTAIN OURSELVES!

Think about when you have a secret you just CAN’T WAIT to share.

Or you bought a gift for someone — you don’t want to WAIT to give it to them!

YOU CANNOT KEEP WHAT JESUS HAS DONE TO YOURSELF!

They are following in the footsteps of the first Missionary to the Gentiles — the Gerasene Demoniac — Healed

“They were astonished”

Again, a hallmark of the work of God — the Presence of God — The work of Jesus’ ministry

Fear | Astonishment | Amazement

1) Jesus Sees the NEED, 2) Jesus MEETS the Need, 3) The Crowd Recognizes the POWER of Jesus.

CONCLUSIONS (3)

No one is “un-clean” BUT we are ALL defiled.

Mark 7:20–23 “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

What makes us ALL unclean is SIN.

Adam’s sin — passed on to us.

Our continued sin.

Someone’s existence does not make them ‘unclean’.

We all must be “made clean” — by the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus Sees US in Our NEED — AND MEETS — those Needs.

Maybe you are broken — in bondage to sin & it’s effects

Maybe you are barely holding it all together — You don’t know how much longer you can.

You can’t ‘hear’ properly

You don’t feel like you can communicate what it is your feeling.

Jesus inhabits our existence — breaks our bondage to sin & frees us to a restored life with Him.

ILL. - Thailand breaking bondage?

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Creation Cries Out to be RESTORED — And We do Too…

This man’s disabilities serve as a reminder of the Fall — it was never meant to be this way.

I think this is the reason Jesus sighs when he looked to heave before healing this man.

Why “Jesus wept” before he raised Lazarus from the dead.

There is coming a day when “all the sad things will come untrue”.

This passage offers a glimpse of that day.

“He has done all things well” —> Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Jesus is not JUST healing this man — but restoring things to the way they were meant to be — GOOD.

The Day of the Lord — is a glimpse of THE DAY OF THE LORD —>

Revelation 21:1–5 (ESV)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

RESPONSE

There is coming a day where things won’t just be RESTORED — but REMADE the way it was meant to be & our union with God will be FULLY RESTORED as He dwells among his Children.

Those that have confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord & Believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead.

As we sing, “The Blood of Jesus Speaks for Me” — Does His blood speak for you?

If you need to respond in Faith — come forward — or tell your neighbor.

Maybe you are moved that Jesus sees you in your NEED — Come forward — that we may pray with you.

Let us RESPOND:

“Oh let my soul arise & sing — My confidence is not in vain — The one who fights for me is King”

Pray