Everything God does is Good
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Good Morning
Did you hear about the guy who went to the doctor for a headache? The doctor examined his ear and found money in it. The doctor kept pulling and pulling it out until he had $1,999.00. Then the doctor said, “no wonder you’re not feeling to two grand!”
Remember the election this Tuesday. Please be praying for our country, even if you are not voting, be praying.
Today we are going to finish Mark chapter 7. We will be in verses 31-37. Last week we saw that Jesus left the boarders of Isreal for the one and only time that we are told of. He is starting a phase of His ministry where He is focusing on His disciples. He went north from Galilee to the region on Tyre and Sidon. This is Gentile territory. That region is modern day Lebanon. We saw Him cast out the demon of a Caananite woman’s daughter. We saw her correct attitude toward Jesus. She knew that she had no right to stand before Him and ask Him for anything. But she was a mother who was out of options for her daughter. She fell at Jesus’ feet and repeatedly begged Him to help her daughter. We saw that what looked like and insult from the surface, but was actually and inclusive statement. Jesus told her that now was not the time. She needed to wait until Isreal was done and then He would come to the rest of the world. But she said that even the dogs eat the crumbs at the children’s table. Her faith healed her daughter. Her faith moved Jesus to move with compassion for them. Jesus didn’t say no to her, he said not now. He wasn’t excluding her and the Gentiles, He was including them. They had a place at the Fathers table, just not the one of honor. Jesus came for everyone. He died so that all could have life.
Today we are going to see that Jesus returns to the area called Decapolis. The are of 10 cities. This is the area that He cast out the legion of demon from the man at the cemetery. The man that was out of control and could not be bound by chains, Jesus healed and he was sitting with them dressed and in his right mind. When Jesus left the area, He would not let the man go with them, He told him to go and tell everyone about what God had done for him. He commissioned him at the first missionary to the Decapolis. In that story, the people did not want Jesus to stay, they implored Him to leave. So He did, but He left a missionary. Now Jesus is back and the peoples attitude towards Him is different. They are now bringing people to Him. Now they want Him to heal their sick. Look at what one person who speaks about Jesus to a region can do. They went from asking Him to leave to bring their sick. We are going to see a pagan people, begin to praise the God of the Israelites!
Please stand as we read God’s word. Mark 7:31-37
31 Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. 32 And they brought to Him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him. 33 And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers in his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; 34 and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35 And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. 36 And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. 37 And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even those who are deaf hear, and those who are unable to talk, speak.”
Let’s pray.
Mark tells us that Jesus left the region of Tyre and Sidon and went to Decapolis. Now He did not go straight to Decapolis. He took the scenic route. Kind of like when dad says he knows a short cut!! He went north out of the region of Tyre and passed through Sidon, then He went E across the Jordan river and then traveled south along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He made a horse shoe. Remember He is focusing on teaching His disciples now, so He used this detour to have time with them.
Now He gets to Decapolis and they are bringing people to Him to heal. Mark tells us that they brought a person who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, couldn’t communicate. They were imploring Him to lay His hands on their friend. The word they used for implore is the same word from when they were asking Jesus to leave. They had done a complete 180 on their view of Jesus. With the same passion that they were asking Him to leave, they are now asking Him to heal! This change in their attitude was partly due to the missionary who stayed and told them about what Jesus had done for him. Telling people about what our King has done for us is vitally important. It can be what helps change their view of Him. We are commanded to go and tell. This missionary to Decapolis did as he was commanded and look at the result.
Mark tells us next that Jesus took the man away from the crowd. He did not want the man to become an attraction. He was not their to minister to them, but because of His compassion, He did. We serve a God who is compassionate and full of mercy. We don’t deserve what He does for us, but He still does it.
Since the man couldn’t hear Jesus, and they didn’t have a standard for sign language, Jesus used His own form of sign language to communicate with the man. He put His fingers in his ears to show him He knew he couldn’t hear and He touched his tongue to let him know He knew he couldn’t speak. It says that Jesus spit on His hands and touched his tongue with the spit. That sounds disgusting to us, but back then it was common for someone who was a healer to use spit in the process of healing. By Jesus touching the man, again He shows that He is not concerned about the uncleaness of the man. He was not only a Gentile but anyone that was deaf and mute was also considered unclean. Jesus was reinforcing that uncleaness does not come from what we touch. After He had touched the man, He looked up to heaven with a deep sigh. He didn’t use words, because the man would not be able to hear them. The man would have been able to see Jesus sigh. When you have a deep sigh, it is visible to people, your body moves with the sigh. Again Jesus was communicating with the deaf man through body language.
Next Jesus says “Be opened!” And the mans ears were opened and he could hear. His mouth was healed and he began to speak plainly. He could hear and communicate! We can see that Jesus’ healing is special. The man didn’t need to learn the language or how to speak it, he could hear with understanding of what people were saying and he could speak plainly. He didn’t need to go to therapy to learn these skills. Jesus gave him these with the healing. The healing we get from our doctors is good, but the healing from Jesus is best, perfect healing!
Now Jesus tells them not to tell anyone! I can’t imagine how this man must have felt when Jesus told him that. He couldn’t speak and now that he can and he has something to say, Jesus tells him not to! Really. I don’t blame this man for not obeying this command. I don’t know of any level of human self control that could have kept this command. I would not have been able to!
Why did Jesus tell them not to tell anyone? It was because they did not have the complete story of Jesus to tell. Imagine if you only had part of the Gospel to tell. You only had the story of Jesus being born of a virgin, Him healing and casting out demons! That is not the whole story. Without the cross and the empty tomb, the story is incomplete. There can only be salvation with the whole story, it has to include the cross and the empty tomb. In Luke 9:20-22
20 And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”21 But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day.”
He did not want them to tell that He was the Christ of God, because they did not have the whole story. It was not until the ascension, now that they have the whole story, that Jesus tells them to go and tell the world. When we tell about Jesus we must include the whole story! It must include the cross and the empty tomb. They are just as important as the rest of the story. Only the whole story and only the whole story has life changing power. If we leave part out, then we are not talking about Jesus anymore. We can’t change the story, we must tell it like it was given to us.
We see that they told everyone anyway. The more Jesus told them to stop, they told it more. They told it so much more that next week we will see Jesus do another miraculous feeding. They were praising Jesus, and the God of the Israelites! In Matthew 15:29-31
29 Departing from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee, and after going up on the mountain, He was sitting there. 30 And large crowds came to Him bringing with them those who were limping, had impaired limbs, were blind, or were unable to speak, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. 31 So the crowd was astonished as they saw those who were unable to speak talking, those with impaired limbs restored, those who were limping walking around, and those who were blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
We are told that they were glorifying God!! Through the work of a missionary, a pagan people began to worship the one true God.
Mark tells us that they said that He has done all things well. Everything that God does is good. He deserves to be glorified. He healed all those people even though that is not why He was there. We serve a God of compassion. God who’s mercy is new every day. We don’t deserve any of it, but He still gives it to us. Have you repented and believed in Jesus? Are you ready to receive His mercies new everyday? All you have to do is repent of your sins and believe in who Jesus said He is. When we sing you pray and let someone know that you prayed so that we can celebrate with our new brothers and sisters. Also if you are thinking about joining our church you can come down and talk to me about it when we are singing.
Let’s pray.
