The One Who Does All Things Well
Notes
Transcript
The title of the sermon to day is the one who does all things well.
In our passage today, we will see Jesus’s ministry continue through Gentile territory. We come to another passage about the miracle of healing. This time, he heals a man who is deaf and has a speech disorder. So let’s read our text for today.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
32 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.
33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Prayer
Introduction - I have always enjoyed playing music. I did not pick up an instrument until my 20’s, but even then I really took to it and have loved playing it ever since. No one would consider me a sort of master at music like others who play are. We are all influenced by music. Even right now, you might be thinking of the artist who influences you the most. But if we track all of the different styles of music back to some sort of source, there is no doubt that it would all pass through a figure in history named Beethoven. And I am not talking about the dog.
Born in 1770, Ludwig Von Beethoven grew up in a musical home. His father initially taught him how to play and would later move on to other teachers. By the age of 13, he had published his first composition. As he aged, he dealt with advanced hearing loss. And by his early 40’s, he was completely deaf. This did not keep him from his passion. He continued to compose music and some of his most well known work came after he had lost his hearing. Beethoven saw an eternal significance in this situation though as he as noted to say before he died that, “in heaven, I shall hear again”.
There is this ever increasing search for miracles and significant healings to happen in life. Think about the healing services that are put on to draw people in. Some of the richest people in the world are people who claim to be healers on behalf of God. Yet, there ministry will never step foot inside of a hospital.
In our passage today, we will see a miraculous healing in the life of a man who is deaf and has a speech problem. But, this should not point us to some sort of search for physical healing, but instead it should point us to the promise of a spiritual healing.
Main Point - Whatever Jesus does, He does it well.
Main Point - Whatever Jesus does, He does it well.
This healing, as we will see, astonishes people. And they see the greatness of Jesus in it. My prayer for us today as we work our way through this passage is that we see Jesus as the one who does all things well.
In our passage, we see two things that stand out in context of what is going on. The first is…
A Need For a Healer
A Need For a Healer
Let’s set the scene for what is about to happen.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
This is a very detailed explanation of where Jesus goes. He leaves Tyre, goes through Sidon to the sea of Galilee, and then stops in the Decapolis region. The Decapolis was a cluster of 10 cities (deca means 10, polis means city). The reason that this is important is the route that Jesus took. On his travel, he stayed in the Gentile region. He went very out of the way to do so. Kind of in the shape of a horseshoe. This journey could have been much shorter, but ended up being around 120 miles. All of this so that he would stay in Gentile territory.
His ministry, once again, is going to be the act of healing someone. This is what is happening. This is a sort of theme here in the travels of Jesus. So the scene is that he is in Gentile (not Jew) territory, and he is doing ministry to a pagan people.
32 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.
Who are they? We aren’t sure. They were probably friends of the man doing something similar to the paralyzed man back in chapter 2 of Mark when they ripped the roof off of the house to get their friend to Jesus. Also similar to that story is the fact that the ones who brought him are the ones who beg Jesus to heal him.
Two observations about this that we should note. First is that it is important who we surround ourselves with. People can either give or take from us. It would have been much easier for people to take advantage of this man, to exploit his differences. But he had people who loved him. Instead of seeing him continue to struggle with his disabilities, they wanted him to be able to live a better life, so they took him to someone who could heal him.
Secondly, we need to see Jesus for who he truly is. That he is our ultimate healer. It would have been easy for people to look to Jesus as just a good man, someone who had good things to say and he was a good leader because he was able to draw in crowds of people. But the friends here knew that he was more than just a good teacher. They knew that if their friend had a chance to be healed, it was with Jesus. So they begged him to lay his hands on him.
Just like the woman whose daughter was sick in the verses right before this, Jesus was begged. This means that they were persistent. That they were not going to give up on Jesus doing this for their friend.
33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
Again, there was this crowd around Jesus. He then leaves the crowd with the man who is deaf. So, we need to ask ourselves, why did Jesus not just do this in front of the crowd? Well this is not the first time that he separated himself from the crowd to heal someone. Whenever Jesus brought Jairus’s daughter back to life, he made everyone leave the room before he did it. Jesus did not want everyone to see everything that he did.
But there was a specific reason that Jesus would have taken this man away from everyone else. He is showing this man that he is the one, in that moment, that Jesus was focusing on. Jesus is making this healing very personal for this man. He was not just another person that was being brought to Jesus to heal. Jesus was not just sitting there with a line of people and touching one after the other to pump out healed people back into the world. No, he was making this healing personal.
He was taking this man away from all of the distractions of life. The man was deaf, not blind. So the crowd around him would have distracted this man from Jesus being able to speak to him in a language that he knew. Jesus uses his hands to speak to this man. We think that this is one of the grossest and strangest ways to heal a man when Jesus puts his fingers in his ears and then spits and touches the mans tongue. I just want to say that Jesus would be the only person that would get away with sticking their finger in my ear and sticking their finger in my mouth.
Remember though, this man was deaf. Jesus could have spoken words to him but he would not have heard it. So Jesus uses his hands to tell this man what he is about to do. Jesus met this man where he was at.
He does this for us too. He didn’t tell this man, “come back when you can hear me so that I can tell you what I am going to do.” This man would not have understood him. So he speaks to this man in his own language. This is what the gospel does for us. When God saves us, we hear the gospel and we understand. How wonderful is this. To be deaf, hear the word of God and then understand.
Understand that we are created in God’s image but because of the sin of Adam and Eve, we have inherited this sin. This sin has separated us from God. The only way that we are able to be brought back into a right relationship is through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And when we repent and believe, we are saved. This is the understanding that we get when God saves us.
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
Jesus healed him. There are some particulars here to look at. First, He looked up to heaven. Jesus did nothing without first looking to God the father first. This is unity being displayed for us. To be of one heart and one mind. Also, he sighed. This is a sign of Jesus taking on the strife of this man. The weight of his disability. And it effects Jesus to the point where he has to physically and verbally sigh. Just the same as Jesus taking on our sin on the cross, he is taking this mans strife on himself in the moment.
And then, we see him say a word in Aramaic. He says one word, in a plain language. This is to show the ones who were there that this was not some sort of incantation or magic trick. This is Jesus commanding this mans ears and tongue to work again.
And they were opened. And he could speak plainly again. Jesus touched this man and he could hear and speak.
If you have missed it so far, we are this man. If you are a born again believer, you are this man. You were not able to hear the gospel, but then Jesus touched you and opened your ears up. You were not able to verbalized the gospel, but then Jesus touched you and you are now able to speak. Come on, this should excite us as believers.
We were dead, and now we are alive in Christ. Jesus took us from death to life. He grabbed us in the midst of our sin and rebellion and touched us and healed us. This spiritual healing that Jesus has given us now gives us the ability to hear the gospel and respond. And now we can take the gospel that we have heard and responded to and speak it to others.
Just like this man, we were in need for a healer. God has given us this healer in Jesus.
A Reason For Praise
A Reason For Praise
There is a term that is used in the Christian world that you may not be familiar with called Apologetics. The idea behind Apologetics is you are trying to reason with someone about a particular subject dealing with the faith.
It is a very common theme to try to argue against Christianity. This is nothing new but I believe that with the rise of social media, it has been given more attention to as of late. There may be different topics that we would try to reason with about. And maybe you think that you need convincing of something today.
I believe that our passage gives us a clear reason to praise God.
36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
This seems peculiar to us that he would tell them not to tell anyone. He has done this before, and just like the times before, they still did. So why would he tell them to not spread the word? This goes back to the spiritual deafness of the culture. They were not ready to hear what had happened and the people who were telling the story were probably putting the focus on the wrong things.
The church culture today is often very similar. The focus ends up being on the wrong things instead of the central focus of the church, God’s word changing lives. How often have you had a friend come and tell you about their church and the first thing out of their mouth had to do with the music or the pastors personality? Quite frequently I would assumed.
We must make sure that we are focused on the right things. Our focus should be worship. That is the ultimate goal of the church. Not a style of music, but a life of worship. Of giving God glory for what he does. When he saves someone, we respond in worship. When someone is physically healed, we respond in worship. When things don’t go our way and we are still broke and sick, we respond in worship.
Whoa, preacher. Now, I can get on board with most of what you said there, but worship when things are going wrong? That just doesn’t seem like the correct response.
There is this system of beliefs inside of the American Christian church that tries to tell us that God should be working in our favor. And that when bad things happen, it is because we have messed up in some way. And that God truly is not in control for some reason when I am sick, broke, or dying.
To think this way is to take sovereignty away from God. That God really is not in control and often is not even at work. If this is true, then the last verse in our passage is false. And that is not the case.
37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Astonishment went around. They had witnessed what Jesus had done and were astonished. Now, remember that this was not even around the crowd, so this would have been a much smaller group of people. They knew this man. They knew that he was deaf and that he had a speech disorder. And now, they saw what Jesus did and were astonished.
Are you astonished at what God has done in your life? If you are a Christian, he has brought you from death to life. This is greater that any physical healing that anyone can ever imagine. We get so complacent in churches while we are looking for the next great thing when we should still be hung up on the greatest thing, salvation. You hear me say this verse all the time.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Then we have Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus has given himself for us. I can’t imagine what the first words this man spoke were when he was healed. But I feel certain that this man gave Jesus praise for what he had did. Jesus healed this man and the people declared that he does all things well. If you truly believe this, your life will be a life of praise. You will see that there is a reason to praise God for all that he has done.
Transition
Even in the hard times, God is still good. God has still taken you and given you ears to hear and a mouth to speak. Are we truly hearing what God has to say to us? In our passage, Jesus leaves the crowd to take this man aside. Are we making sure that we are separating ourselves from all of the outside noise that will distract us? Are we turning the tv off and putting our phones down so that we can hear God?
And then, are we giving God the praise? Even in the hard times, are we praising God for what he has done in our life? The fact that he has brought us out of darkness into marvelous light, that he has brought us out of death and into life. This alone is worthy of praise.
Conclusion
Challenges
Find a way to make sure you are getting alone with God to be able to hear what he has to say to you. Cut off all your distractions, take God’s word, open in. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down what God is saying to you.
Find one person this week to share God’s goodness with. Maybe it is sharing with them about something great that God has provided you like your spouse. Maybe it is sharing about your church family that God has blessed you with. And we should all be ready and willing to share about God giving us salvation. But with all of these things, be sure to tell them who is worthy of all praise.
Because Jesus is the one who does all things well.
