Ears To Hear | Mark 7

Y’all can go ahead and turn to Mark 7 in your bibles. We are covering the entirety of chapter 7 tonight so we’re not gonna read all of it, but we are gonna talk about the entire chapter.

So I know it’s been a minute since we’ve dove into Mark, so let’s do a quick recap of the end of chapter 6.

Do y’all remember what we talked about at the end of chapter 6?

Jesus fed the five thousand, and in that we see Jesus showing compassion for and providing for His people. And we saw that Jesus is our provider. He loves us and will provide for us.

Then after that we see Jesus walk on water. The disciples had been rowing against terrible wind and waves all night and all of the sudden they see a figure walking on water. And as any sane person would do, they are immediately terrified. Jesus tells them, “Don’t be afraid, it’s me.” And He hops in the boat and the wind and waves stop. And when they make it to the other side, Jesus heals a ton of sick people. And this is shows us that Jesus is not only our Provider, He’s also our Protector. He protects us from the wind and waves of life and the sickness in our heart called sin.

That leads us to tonight. Now before we get into it, I wanna ask y’all. Have y’all ever tried to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak English very well? It’s a nightmare (especially if you only speak English).

They’re trying to talk to you in the very limited English they know and you maybe get every three or four words they’re saying and you have to try and piece together what you did understand to figure out what they’re trying to communicate to you.

Well this might as well have been how it was in the Old Testament when God communicated with Israel. God might as well have been speaking a completely different language because He’d command them to do or not do something, and they’d do the exact opposite. It really was that bad. It would be like Trevor telling me to look at him, and me responding, “Okay look this way? Oh you mean this way.” And never actually doing what He said.

And this isn’t God’s fault. It’s not like God is up there trying to figure out how Google translate works and is failing miserably. We’re so sinful, that we can’t understand God. Because if we did understand God, we wouldn’t sin. Yet we do anyways.

It’s like God finally figures out our language and we change it completely.

It’s honestly like if you put a boomer and a gen z in a room together and told them to have a conversation. With the way y’all talk nowadays, I doubt the boomer would be able to understand anything the gen z person says. Like Trevor taught me, “Skibiddi Toilet,” a few months ago. Like how did that even get created? Two years ago if you would’ve told me, “That’s skibiddi toilet,” I would’ve questioned your sanity.

Leaders if you’re wondering what skibiddi toilet means, don’t. I promise you it’s not worth your time.

Anyways, the point is that God wants to have a relationship with us. And I don’t just mean us in this room, I mean the entire world. But for us to have a relationship with God, we have to understand who He is and how great He is. God can’t be in the presence of sin because of how righteous He is, and He knows sin is bad for us. The problem is, our sin deceives us to the point where we can’t understand how bad it is.

That brings us to our first point for the night.

1. Salvation is not based on our works (Mark 7:1-23).

So Jesus has been healing people and one day He is eating with His disciples. And there are some Pharisees that came to see Jesus. Specifically, they likely came to try and disprove Jesus’ authority.

So the Pharisees show up and they see the disciples are about to eat, but haven’t washed their hands. Now we just see that as nasty, but the Pharisees saw it as a violation of the Law. It was Jewish tradition to wash your hands before you ate so that you would remain pure. Now keep in mind, this is not written in the Bible, the Jews adopted this as a tradition and it was seen as the religiously pure thing to do.

So the Pharisees see this and they ask Jesus, “What’s the deal? They’re supposed to wash their hands according to the Law?” Jesus is like, “Nah dude. You’re ignoring God’s Law for your own tradition.” And He goes so far as to say that the Pharisees may seem to honor God with what they say and do, but their hearts are far from God.

And Jesus uses an example. As many of y’all know, one of the ten commandments is to “honor your father and mother.” Well apparently according to Jewish tradition, you could dedicate your money to the temple and nullify your responsibility to take care of your parents with that money. Jewish tradition allowed that. Jesus called the Pharisees out on it to highlight exactly how sinful their hearts are.

Then Jesus goes back to the idea of purity. Someone read verse 15 for me.

Mark 7:15 NLT

15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

Jesus is showing us that the human heart is impure. And you can’t purify yourself. It doesn’t matter what ritual you do or what you eat, your heart is still impure. You need someone else to purify your heart.

We just talked about the fact that we can’t understand God because of something that’s wrong with us. What did we say that was wrong with us that kept us from hearing God? Our sin.

We are all sinful people. And our relationship with God is broken because of that. Remember what I said earlier? God is completely righteous. Completely holy. He can’t even be in the presence of sin. So to be with God, we need to be without sin. But we’re sinful! We need someone to save us from our sinful condition.

So I wanna ask you a question, then we’ll move on. Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a Savior? [Repeat that]

That leads us into our next point…

2. Salvation is by faith alone (Mark 7:24-30).

Mark 7:24–27 NLT

24 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. 25 Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, 26 and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter. Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, 27 Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Let’s stop there. Jesus just straight up insulted this woman. He just called this woman a dog.

That can’t feel good. Imagine if Jesus called you a dog to your face. But the response this woman had was amazing.

Let’s continue reading.

Someone read verses 27 through 30.

Mark 7:27–30 NLT

27 Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” 28 She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.” 29 “Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

So Jesus just called this woman a dog, and she responds saying, “Yea but even dogs get scraps from the table.”

The humility of this woman. To be called a dog and she responds, “Yea I am, but even dogs get scraps.” We could learn so much from this woman’s humility. Because the reality is we’re all dogs.

And not only does this woman show humility, but she shows a ton of faith in Jesus. She had faith that even though she wasn’t Jewish, Jesus was still powerful enough and generous enough to save her gentile daughter.

This reminds me of a story about Alexander the Great.

So Alexander that Great had this General who had been with him for a long time who’s daughter was about to get married. And the general approaches Alexander the Great and asks him to pay for the wedding. Alexander the Great agrees to do it and tells him to get the money from the treasurer.

Well soon after that the Treasurer goes up to Alexander the Great and says, “The General is taking advantage of your generosity. He’s asking for an insane amount of money for this wedding for his daughter. Enough to be the largest wedding Greece has ever seen.”

Alexander the Great’s response was not what this man expected. He waived his hand and said, “Grant him his request in full.” The Treasurer was dumbfounded. Alexander the Great continued, “My general pays me two compliments: He believes that I am rich enough to afford his request and that I am generous enough to grant it. In assuming these two things, he honors me.”

Isn’t that so similar to what Jesus is doing for this woman? In asking this of Jesus, she’s not only assuming that He’s capable of doing this miracle, but that He’s generous enough to provide it. That’s faith! Trusting that God is capable of saving us and that He’s generous enough to provide it.

So I wanna ask you another question before we move on. I asked y’all wallago if you knew that you were a sinner in need of a Savior. Now I ask, do you have faith that Jesus is capable of saving you from your sin, and that He is generous enough to die on the cross for your sins? [Repeat that]

Our last point for tonight is…

3. Salvation is for all nations (Mark 7:24-37).

Now we’ll move on to next story in a minute, but let’s hang back and take another look at the story of Jesus casting the demon out of the gentile woman’s daughter.

So Jesus tells the woman in verse 27 that He should feed the Jews first. Then by faith, she asks for scraps. Now it was common belief back then that the Jewish Messiah would be a savior for the Jews and exclusively for the Jews. But Jesus shows us by His response that He wasn’t just here to save the Jews. He’s here to save all nations.

And that theme continues through the next story. Someone read verses 31 through 37 for me.

Mark 7:31–37 NLT

31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him. 33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly! 36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. 37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”

Here we close out this chapter with yet another healing from Jesus. In previous chapters, we’ve seen Jesus heal many people. We’ve seen Him heal sickness, we’ve seen Him cast out demons, and here we see Jesus heal a deaf man, or a man who can’t hear.

Earlier I mentioned that we have trouble hearing from God. And why was that? Our sin.

So in the same way that Jesus gave this man his hearing, through His death and resurrection we are given the Spirit of God and are now able to hear from God. We can read His Word and understand what it means. When someone preaches the gospel, we can understand what the gospel is. And all of this is because the Spirit of God is revealing these things to us. We have been given ears to hear.

It’s funny cause that’s a phrase Jesus says so often in Mark. Y’all know what phrase I’m talking about? He says it in so many of His sermons. “He who has ears let him hear.” In other words, those who know Jesus, let him understand what He tells them.

The Spirit of God allows us to understand the Word of God.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t just allow us to understand the gospel. The Holy Spirit also gives us the desire to share the gospel. Look at the response of the crowd in verses 36 and 37. Even though Jesus asked them not to, they were excited to share with others how awesome Jesus is.

That should be our response to the gospel. It should leave us amazed and it should give us the desire to tell others about it. It is the natural response to the gospel.

The crowd might’ve been going against Jesus’ wishes in this story by telling others about Him, but the narrative changed when Jesus gave us the Great Commission. Y’all remember that? Matthew 28. “Go make disciples of all nations.” Jesus no longer says, “Don’t tell others about what you have seen.” He now says, “Go and tell all nations about Me.”

This is our commission as disciples of Jesus. This should be our desire as disciples of Jesus.

We have been given ears to hear. It should be our desire to show the lost people of the world that they can be healed as well.

So my last question before we close is, are you going to go and tell others about Jesus? We’re gonna dive into all these questions I’ve been asking in small group because they are all parts of who we are as Christians.

Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a Savior?

Do you have faith that Jesus is capable of saving you from your sin, and that He is generous enough to die on the cross for your sins?

And are you going to go and tell others about Him?

Think about these questions as we go into small groups. Let’s pray.