Jesus Came for All
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Good Morning
Complaints
Of all the inventions of the last 100 years, the dry erase board has to be the most remarkable!!
Today we are going to be in Mark 7:24-30. Last week we looked at where our uncleaness comes from. It comes from out hearts. It is not the things outside our bodies that make us unclean. It is what comes out of us, what comes from the heart, makes us unclean. Our hearts when left unchecked, are evil and desire wicked things. It is only by the grace of God that any of us do good things. Praise God for His mercy and grace!!
We are in a time of Jesus’ ministry that He is no longer teaching the masses. He is more focused on His disciples and making sure that they are ready for what is about to come. The cross. We saw last week that He didn’t offer an explanation of the parable to the crowd. Today we are going to see that for the first time He leaves Isreal and enters into the Gentile land of Tyre. It is likely that He wanted some rest for the upcoming Passover and what that would bring for Him. He also is focused on His disciples and their teaching. His focus is much more narrow now. It is inward to just the ones that are in the inner circle.
Our scripture today has caused some controversy. It has offended some people. I believe that is because it has been read with a worldly view of it. It has been taken out of context. I hope that by the end of today, I have explained it well enough, that we can see that there is no offense to be taken. It is actually good news to us here today!
We are going to look at the Syrophoenician Woman. The woman that Jesus called a dog! Please save your offenses till the end. Please stand as we read our verses.
24 Now Jesus got up and went from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know about it; and yet He could not escape notice. 25 But after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician descent. And she repeatedly asked Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” 29 And He said to her, “Because of this answer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And after going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Let’s Pray
We see that Jesus has left the area He was in and has gone to the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is a Gentile region. He has left Isreal and the Jews. He is looking for rest and some private time to teach the disciples. But as we will see, not even in Gentile country can Jesus go unnoticed. This region is about 20 miles from Galilee to the north. This is the region that was the home of Jezabel(1 kings 16:31-32). This was the center of Baal worship. Today this area is called Lebanon. He is going to get to teach His disciples, but He is not going to get any rest.
It says that He entered a house and didn’t want anyone to know about it, but even in Gentile county, Jesus is known! How did they know about Jesus in Tyre and Sidon?
Look back in Mark 3:8 “8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard about everything that He was doing and came to Him.” These people probably never thought that Jesus would come to their region. Now He is here and they are going to take advantage of it. No rest for ministry work!
Mark tells us that a woman heard that Jesus was at this house and she had a daughter that had an unclean spirit in her came to Jesus. Notice how she came to Jesus! She fell at His feet! That is how we should all come to Jesus. This is the only correct posture for a person to come to Jesus. She knew she was not a Jew and had no right to come to Jesus. Mark tells us that she was a Gentile. But it is even worse than that. Matthew tells us in Matthew 15:22 that she is a Canaanite! They were supposed to have been wiped out but the Israelites didn’t do what God told them to do and they have been a thorn to the Jews ever since. This woman had some nerve coming to Jesus, the Messiah to the Jews and asking anything of Him!
Mark says that she kept asking Jesus to cast out the demon from her daughter. We get more detail from Matthews account. Matthew tells us that Jesus was ignoring her and His disciples were getting annoyed with her and asked Him to tell her to go away. It says that she was shouting at them. She was not going to be ignored. She is a mother that desperately wanted her daughter healed. She was out of options and of all things, this healer that they had heard of from Galilee was in her area! She was desperate!
Finally Jesus answers her and tells her that it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs! Say what! Jesus just called this desperate mother who has a sick child a dog! That does not sound like something that Jesus would say. Well, He said it! Look at her response.
Oh no you didn’t! Who do you think you are calling me a dog! I have never been so offended in all my life! That is what she said, right! No, she didn’t get offended! She showed such humility. She answered by calling Him Lord! Even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs. This woman knew who she was and knew who Jesus was! She fell on her face before Jesus. She knew she had no right to stand and look Him in the eye. Her faith and humility moved Jesus to heal her daughter. The Bible says that the humble will be exalted. This woman's humility moved God!
Let’s back up and unpack some of this. Back in verse 27 Jesus never told her no. He said to let the children be satisfied first. Jesus came for all to be saved, but He came first for the Jews. We can see this in Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Jesus came to the Jews first, they rejected Him, then He went to the Gentiles. There were enough Jews who accepted Him, the 12 disciples. He then sent them to the world, to the Gentiles. That is what He ment by that. First the Jews had to have their chance, then the Gentiles. The term children’s bread refers to God’s blessings offered to the Jews. Jesus is that bread. He is God’s blessing that came from the Jews. Out of the seed of Abraham. Jesus called Himself the bread of life. It only takes a crumb of that bread to be able to save us. So remember that Jesus never told her no, just wait your turn.
Let’s dig into the dog reference. There are 2 words for dog that are used in the Greek. The first is the one that the Jews used for the Gentiles. It means a mangy, wild, dirty, scavenger. This is the most common type of dog. It was a larger dog. It ran wild and people did not like these dogs. They were not wanted. They were dirty and unruly. This is not the type of dog we think of today. It is not the cute pet that we have running around our homes.
The second word is for a smaller dog. This was a dog that would have been a pet in a home. Still not like our dogs. A small dog that would have sat under the table during meals and eaten the food that was dropped. It would have been a friend to the kids in the house.
In calling her a dog, Jesus was not being derogatory, He was in fact being inclusive. He was telling her that she had a place in God’s house, but not the prominent one. He was telling His disciples, I have come for the whole world, not just the Jew. He was using this woman, to show the disciples that they would be going to the Gentiles.
Because she didn’t get offended and she was humble and answered in the correct way, Jesus healed her daughter. She called Jesus Lord. She showed here humble faith and worshipful attitude. She knew that she was sinful and was undeserving of any of God’s blessings. Her response was characterized by a complete absence of pride and self-reliance. She was completely opposite of the Pharisee’s. The Pharisee’s were prideful and had an attitude that because of what they had done, they were righteous. They couldn’t have been farther from the truth. This woman shows us how were are to respond to Jesus.
What some people see as offensive, really is the greatest news that we could receive. Through this Canaanite woman, Jesus lets us know that we can have salvation, He didn’t come just for the Jews. He came to save the world. He came for the whomsoever! Whomsoever will repent and believe may have eternal life! Salvation! I think we are too easily offended today! We need to get thicker skin. Our emotions will lie to us. Jesus was constantly offended. The Apostles were constantly offended. Why should we be any different. We are called to be different. We should expect to be offended by a world that hates and murdered our King. They will do the same to us.
We just need to remember this Syrophoenician woman. Through her Jesus made a statement to the world. I have come for all! Have you accepted Him? Have you repented of your sins? If you haven’t, when we sing you take this time to do that. Become a whomsoever! If you want to join the church, while we sing you can come and see me. However God is moving you, come!
Pray
