He Does All Things Well

Introduction

It has been two weeks since we have looked at our series through the life of Christ, but we are back to it today! So let’s do a brief recap of the events that have happened recently in Jesus’ life. We are somewhere past the two year mark of Jesus’ ministry right now, but let us rewind just a bit. We will rewind a few months in Jesus’ ministry, because what happened then will paly into the account today.

I want to take us all the way back to Mark chapter 5. At this time, Jesus has just started teaching primarily in parables. He has spoken parables before now, but now, to keep His teachings hidden from the Pharisees and Scribes and all others who were not out to follow Him or get to know Him, but simply trying to find more reasons to kill Him, Jesus hides the meaning of His teachings in parables.

So Jesus has this whole discourse where he speaks only in parables, and afterward, some of His disciples wish to know the meaning of a few. When Jesus finishes explaining, it is night time, but instead of saying, “All right, we’ve got a big day tomorrow - time for bed,” He instead says, “Everybody in the boat, we need to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.”

A few of his followers make excuses as to why they cannot follow Jesus, and Jesus allows them to leave. But one particular disciple, we do not know which one, says, “I cannot go, I’ve got to go bury my father.” We remember that the meaning of this phrase has at least three possible messages - 1, My dad just died and the funeral is in a couple of days; 2, my dad is terminally ill, and any day now he is going to die; or 3, there is nothing wrong with my dad, but I do not want to follow you fully until after my father dies and I am able to make my own decisions without having to worry about what he might say (or something of the sort).

Whatever the scenario, it really doesn’t matter because unlike the others that made their excuses and with Jesus responding, “Well, because you’re making these excuses, you can’t follow me anyway,” Jesus actually looks at this one man and says, “Let the dead bury their dead; I want you to follow me.” Though this may seem a harsh response, we soon see that those that followed Jesus into the boat and travelled with Him across the sea experienced something that no one else could have possibly experienced.

There they are, in the middle of the sea. Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when a large storm suddenly arises. At least four of the disciples are expert sailors, and even with all their expertise they were afraid that the boat would sink because it was taking on so much water. So they run to Jesus and wake Him up saying, “Master, don’t you care that we perish in this storm?” So Jesus looks at them, tells them they have such little faith, and then, with a simple phrase, “Peace, be still,” He calms the raging wind and waves.

Astonished, the disciples begin to ask, “What manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?” Those others that had followed Jesus in their own boats also were witness to this. Shortly after that, they make land on the other side of Galilee, in the region of Gadara and Gergesa that belong to the Decapolis region. Decapolis was a conglomerate of 10 cities. These ten cities were mainly Hellenistic in their culture and religion. That is, they were heavily influenced by Greek culture. Some Jews lived among them, but even those Jews that did had adopted the Greek lifestyle, though not always the religions.

Upon making shore outside Gergesa, Jesus is met by the town crazy. The Bible does not give his name, so we called him Joe - crazy Joe. Joe is possessed by a Legion of demons. hundreds, if not thousands, of demons are possessing this man. He lives out among the graves and in the tombs. And by now, it seems that the citizens of the area have just come to grips with ol’ Joe just screaming and crying and moaning in the local cemetery.

But Joe comes to meet Jesus, and Joe, not the demons, begins to worship Jesus. Jesus addresses the demons and casts them out and they go to possess about 2,000 pigs that then run off a cliff and drown themselves. When the people of the town come out and see Jesus, sitting with a no longer crazy, no longer naked, and no longer crying Joe, they become afraid. When they realize that their pigs are all dead, they get a little angry and ask Jesus and His disciples to leave the area. Luke 8:34-37

Luke 8:34–37 KJV 1900

34 When they that fed them [the pigs] saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. [They recounted what they witnessed. That Crazy Joe was not crazy anymore and that the pigs had all been drowned.] 35 Then they [the people that had just heard the news from those that fed the pigs] went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. [It shocked them to see Crazy Joe not crazy anymore. It shocked them so much that they were afraid. Why? Because they had often tried to calm Joe down. They had often tied him up and shackled him with ropes and chains, but Joe would just break them. And now, one man simply speaks? One man just says a word and not only does Joe calm down and finally put some clothes on, not only are the demons quieted for a little while, but they are gone and Joe is actually delivered from them. Yeah, I’d be afraid too, if I were them.] 36 They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. [There were some more witnesses there, ones that were not far away with the pigs. These witnesses heard the interaction between Jesus and the demons, and they begin to tell the townsfolk about the conversation they heard. They begin to tell the towns people that the demons begged to go into the pigs, and Jesus allowed it.] 37 Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. [It wasn’t just a few people from the town, the news from the ones that fed the pigs was so great that everyone from that whole region that encompassed Gergesa and Gadara, that was a few miles inland, and other smaller towns in between, they all went to see Jesus, and when they heard the witnesses, they all wanted Jesus gone.]

Joe asks Jesus if he can go with Him, but Jesus forbids it. Instead, Jesus gives Joe a mission - go to your town and tell people all that the Lord has done for you.

Mark 5:18–20 KJV 1900

18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

So Joe does not just go into his city, he goes all over Decapolis and begins to tell people of the wonderful things that the Lord has done for him.

So Jesus returns to Galilee where He is received well. There, He heals a woman with an issue of blood. She had been having her menstrual bleeding for twelve years non-stop. And she is healed simply by touching Jesus garments. This happens as Jesus is on the way to resurrect a 12 year old girl, daughter of a man named Jairus, a leader of the synagogue there.

Jesus then leaves Capernaum and travels to Nazareth, the town where He grew up, where his family still lives. There, few people believe Him and enough of them are offended so greatly at His teachings that they try to throw Jesus off a cliff to kill Him! So Jesus slips away, traveling back to Capernaum. As He travels back, he gives the 12 disciples a mission - “Go out in pairs and preach the gospel. Everything that you have heard me preach, spread it wherever you go.” He gave them the power to perform signs and miracles and healings so that the people could see that the words they spoke were actually from God.

After a few weeks, they come back, around the same time when John the Baptist is executed. Upon hearing this news, Jesus takes His disciples out to area of Bethsaida, to a desert place. However, people a multitude follow Him. Instead of running them off, Jesus preaches to them and heals those that need healing. Then, he feeds the crowd of around 20,000 people with just five loves of bread and two small fish. They eat their fill and then the disciples pick up 12 baskets full of leftovers.

He sends the disciples back across the sea to the regions of Gennesaret. But as they try to make that trip, they spend about nine hours rowing against a storm and finding themselves barely half-way there. Jesus observes them from a mountain, and then crosses the sea, walking across the water. The disciples get scared, Jesus lets them know that it is just Him, and when He gets into the boat, Jesus calms the storm again.

They reach Gennesaret in the early morning hours and then make their way north to Capernaum, where the Jesus teaches in the synagogue. The teachings offend the many people that had been miraculously fed just 24 hours before, and many people that had called themselves disciples of Jesus turn away from Him, never to follow Him again. When Jesus asks the 12 if they also will turn away, Peter responds, “Where would we go? Only you have the words of life.”

So Jesus travels once again out of Herod’s territory north, into the land of the Syrophoenicians. There, he heals a Gentile woman’s daughter, delivering her from the possession of a demon. And this is where we find ourselves now.

If you were wondering, we covered those events over the last 11 sermons of this series, and those sermons started back on September 28, 2025. Because of interrupting the series with Christmas and other reasons, we find ourselves here in March 2026 reviewing these things.

But I want to review them because all this sets up the events we will study today. And it all starts with the understanding of why Jesus told His disciples back in Mark 5 that they needed to get in the boat and cross the Sea of Galilee right then instead of waiting until the next day. We need to understand why Jesus told His disciple to let the dead - that is, the people that were not following after Jesus actively- take care of the funeral arrangements for his father and for him to get in the boat and follow Jesus.

We have already discussed 2 reasons at length when we went over this, but the first one was that those that followed Jesus that evening were able to see Jesus commanding nature itself. But then, they were able to see Jesus command a host of demons, not just one at a time, but thousands. And the disciples marvelled at these things, and as they did, their understanding of Jesus’ authority climbed.

But the need to cross that sea at that time was also seen in the fact that Jesus knew who would come to meet them at that time - Crazy Joe, and Joe’s life was forever changed.

To us it may seem like a misuse of money, resources, and time to cross a sea to tell one person the Gospel, only to be kicked out of the region by an angry mob. How many thousands would have been willing to listen to Jesus back in Galilee? Perhaps even the disciples thought, “After suffering so much in crossing, fighting the storm and nearly capsizing, all that happened was that one man believed in Jesus and was freed? Was that even worth the trouble?”

And for months, maybe they thought this way. Until today.

Journey to Decapolis

Today, we pick up where we left off - at the borders of Tyre and Sidon - the region of Syrophoenicia. But Jesus is about to leave this area as well, and travel to region of the Decapolis. Now, Decapolis was not what we might think. When we here the word “metropolis”, one of two things comes to mind - the city in which Superman mainly operates, or a sprawling metropolitan area surrounding a great city. When we here “Decapolis” — deca meaning 10 and polis meaning cities (ten cities), we may think about it as 10 cities that are close to each other and have kind of grown into on metropolitan area, like the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Or on a smaller scale, like Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha.

This understanding of the word Decapolis is very flawed, so let’s get out the map.

Up in the top left side of the map, the northwestern area of the coast, you will see a purple circle - that is Tyre, in Phoenicia. This is the area that Jesus is departing. He is making His way to the region of Decapolis. Here’s the deal, Decapolis is not on giant metropolitan area, it was a federation of 10 cities (and some smaller towns) that were very spread out from each other. On this map, you can see red dots, mainly on the eastern side of the map. Those red dots are some of the cities of the Decapolis.

In the northeast, you have Damascus, and Pella at the very south end of the map (though it is not the southernmost city of the Decapolis). It is believed that Jesus travelled from Tyre, northeast, to Damascus before beginning His journey south toward the coastal regions of the other cities of Decapolis on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee.

And this is where are text begins today.

Mark 7:31 KJV 1900

31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

There in that area, Matthew tells us that he goes up to a mountain, where a multitude follows Him.

Matthew 15:29–30 KJV 1900

29 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 30a And great multitudes came unto him...

And among this multitude, there is a particular man that Mark speaks about.

Mark 7:32–33 KJV 1900

32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33a And he took him aside from the multitude...

Whereas Matthew only tells us that Jesus healed people in the multitude, Mark specifically singles out this man, and in doing so, we see a side of Jesus that is personal and compassionate. Let’s look at Matthew’s account of this.

Matthew 15:30–31 KJV 1900

30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: 31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

Verse 30 tells us that they were casting those that were sick at Jesus’ feet. It is a picture of people rushing to Jesus with the sick and diseased, kind of pushing them toward Jesus, and maybe rushing back to crowd or maybe even to town to quickly bring as many sick people as they could. It sounds very presumptuous.

The thing is, Jesus healed them! He didn’t say, “Hey! Have some respect here! I am not a factory. I am the Messiah, the Son of God. Don’t be in such a hurry.” But He doesn’t do that. He takes them and heals them.

And Mark gives us a bit of insight into Jesus’ manner of doing things. Though others in the crowd may have treated Jesus impersonally, Jesus treated those He healed with consideration.

Mark 7:33–35 KJV 1900

33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

This particular man was deaf, but it seems as if he could at one time hear. The Bible says that he had a speech impediment, it does not say that he was mute. So, it is very possible that he had at one point been able to hear and try to speak and then one day he lost his hearing. The impediment of speech seems to be that his tongue was tied, based on what we read in v. 35.

But Jesus takes this man away from the multitude, away from the crowd. And in a private healing session, He puts his fingers in the mans ears, and then touches his tongue, probably with His thumbs. Jesus then spits — where He spits we do not know — and says the words “Be opened,” or in Aramaic, “Ephphatha.”

Immediately, the man’s hearing is restored and his tongue is made loose so that now he can speak plainly.

And look at what happens next. Mark 7:36

Mark 7:36 KJV 1900

36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

For whatever reason, Jesus asks that this man, and probably all the others that he has healed, not to publish this account. But they could not contain their joy and amazement. Word spreads like wildfire, and look at what they are saying.

Matthew 15:31 KJV 1900

31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

Mark 7:37 KJV 1900

37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

He Has Done All Things Well

This is a commendation of Jesus that takes the praise all the way back to the days of Creation when Jesus, the actor in creation, formed everything with His hands while the Father was speaking it, and after everything created, the Divine Trinity would look at it and say, “It is good.” And now, as Jesus heals the lame, the deaf, the mute, and the blind, the witnesses see it and say, “He has done all things well.”

And we could very well recognize this as appropriate praise, but are you realizing who these people are? These people are the same ones that months before, when Jesus cast out the multitude of demons from Crazy Joe of Gadara, they had told Jesus to hop back in His boat and leave. “Get out of here, Jesus! You’ve messed up our lives. All of our pigs are dead! What are we supposed to eat now? What are we supposed to take to the market and sell? How are we going to feed our families? Great, Crazy Joe isn’t crazy anymore, but what about us? You bungled it all up Jesus, and if this is the way you do things, it’s not right, it’s not good, and we want you to leave!”

And Jesus left, but he left a man. He left ol’ Joe — no longer naked, no longer crying, no longer tormented. He left Joe to tell others what wonderful things Jesus had done in his life. I don’t know if Joe was married or not, but if he wasn’t, I bet the first place that Joe went after being delivered was his mama’s house.

Can you imagine what kind of reunion that would be? A desperate knock on the door and Joe’s parents finally open up to find their son, clothed and in his right mind, standing in front of them. He’s crying, but its different. He’s not sad, he’s not desperate, he’s not wailing, he’s not crazy. He’s happy. And when he talks, it is the voice of their son. A voice that they have not heard clearly in so long. And he begins to tell them all about his encounter with Jesus.

But can you imagine if Joe was married? The first place Joe goes is back to his house. And as he enters, his wife jumps at the sight of a man she barely recognizes anymore. Hair still long and probably still dirty and matted, but no longer naked and no longer wild stands her husband there in the doorway. He’s crying, and he’s saying something about a person named Jesus. And as he talks, she hears the voice of the man that she married. Out of the bedrooms come the children. Grown a little since last Joe laid eyes on them. And perhaps they at first are scared to see their father standing in their house, but they immediately recognize something is very different than the last time he left to go live among the tombs.

And wherever he goes first, Joe is telling people about Jesus. But I imagine that the pig farmers are also talking about Jesus. And as Joe goes to his old buddy’s house, he starts to talk about Jesus and Joe’s friend interrupts and says, “Oh yeah, I heard about Jesus. Didn’t he mess everything up? Isn’t he the guy who ruined the pig farmers’ life? What a jerk, this Jesus! I am glad they ran him off; it seems like he does everything wrong!”

But Joe responds, “No! Look at me! Remember me? Remember how I was just last week? Look at all these scars on my body where I cut myself, where the demons tore at me and made me do crazy things. No, Jesus delivered me. He does all things well, not wrong.”

And everywhere that Joe went, from his city of Gergesa to the other cities and towns of the Decapolis, people had probably heard the stories and the reasons of why Jesus was kicked out of town — because he messes everything up. “But no,” I can hear Joe saying, “No, no, no. Jesus does all things well. Let me tell you about how He delivered me!”

For weeks and maybe even months, Joe goes around telling others about how Jesus does all things well. How He has power and authority over demons. How even these evil spirits that had tormented him so much, that had overpowered every attempt to bind him, that he himself was powerless against, how with just a word, Jesus was able to free him immediately. These spirits cowered before His name. They begged and pleaded. And Jesus commanded. No, He doesn’t mess everything up, he does all things well.

And now, probably two to three months or more after Jesus was initially kicked out of the shores of Decapolis, here is a crowd of “Decapolites” saying, “Praise the God of Israel! Praise Jesus, for He does do all things well!”

Put yourself in the shoes of Crazy Joe when Jesus tells him, “You can’t follow me, but you need to go to your city and your house and tell people what God has done for you.” Wouldn’t you be a bit disappointed? Would you wrestle with why Jesus didn’t want you to be part of His disciples that followed Him around? But I believe with all my heart that this man realized that day that Jesus did all things well, even when Jesus says, “No.”

Further Context

We know from what the Bible says that the when the Demoniac of Gadara was delivered, before he could go out and tell people about Jesus, many others were already spreading the word about Jesus in a defamatory manner.

We don’t know who Joe told the good news to first, but we do know that he went and began telling others about Jesus, and that his story was most likely the second story that people had heard about Jesus.

I take great care in not preaching what the Bible does not say. I try to be very careful to not speculate about things that the Bible does not talk about. However, we cannot approach the Bible the way we approach fairy tales. When we read about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, rarely do we think about the dwarves family life, the hardships they endured working in the mines, or wonder about if they had prospects of marrying anyone. When we think about the evil queen, we often do not give a second thought about what happened to her to drive her to such depths of hatred. What was her childhood like that would make her so evil as an adult? What kind of things did she go through as a teenager or young adult that would make her want to kill a child (because unlike the Disney version, the original version of the tale states that the queen begins to hate Snow White when she is only seven).

So we hear or read or watch fairy tales like these and we often do not give a second thought about what is going on in the background. And that is quite alright, because the originators of these tales did not give us background stories or even much character development in the fairy tales.

But the Bible is not a fairy tale. These people lived real lives. They had real families and responsibilities and hardships and joys and blessings and struggles. They had friends and enemies. They lived with the same emotions that we do. They worried about the future, held regrets from the past. These are real people that we are studying, and we must consider the implications of these various events in the lives of these very real people. And I believe that it is a good idea for us to try to understand these people by putting ourselves in their shoes from time to time.

So I want us to go back to one other person and consider some possibilities in his life surrounding the things that he may or may not have experienced. Again, I want to be very careful as I go through these possibilities, and as we look at a couple of possible scenarios, I want you to remember two things — 1) these scenarios are not something we see happen in the Bible specifically to this man, but 2) they serve to illustrate actual biblical concepts.

The person in question is found all the way back in Matthew 8:18-23

Matthew 8:18–23 KJV 1900

18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. 19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. 23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

This is right after Jesus’ first lengthy teaching of parables. There are multitudes that are crowding Him. The book of Mark tells us that it was evening. Jesus has taught His parables, then given the interpretation to some, and now He says, we need to leave. He gives the command to get in the boat and depart to the other side.

When He does, a Scribe tells Jesus that he is willing to follow him, but Jesus tells him it will cost his comfort. Another man that is mentioned in Luke 9 tells Jesus that he will also follow, but first, he wants to go say farewell to his friends and family. Jesus tells him that he’s not worthy to be a follower if he is not willing to give all that up without looking back.

And finally, Matthew 8 tells us of a third man. This man is a disciple (v.21). Which disciple? we do not know. I personally believe he’s one of the 12. And he has a very reasonable request — “Lord, will you let me go and bury my father first before I go and get in the boat?” In other words, “Lord, I did not realize that you were planning on leaving tonight (and Mark 4 tells us that this was a journey that Jesus commanded with no time to make preparations), so can we postpone a day or two?” A lot of possible interpretations have been given to make Jesus not seem so harsh, and though some of those are good, possible interpretations, I personally believe that this disciple had just lost his Father. Currently, Jesus is around the vicinity of Capernaum, where Jesus had set up the headquarters to His ministry. Many of the 12 disciples were from this city or the surrounding towns, so it is not a stretch to think that this disciple had expected to be there for a while and be able to bury his father. So put yourself in this disciple’s shoes for a moment with me.

Now, Jesus is commanding everyone to get in the boat and go to the other side. At best, this journey was going to take two days, and knowing Jesus, there is not telling when you would be back in that area. So you say, “Lord, before we go, can I bury my dad first?”

And what Jesus says next seems really harsh and really mean, and if we do not know who Jesus is, then it is easy to take it as harsh and mean and cruel. If we do not take into account what happens next, over the course of the next few months of Jesus’ ministry, it sounds really cruel and mean too.

Matthew 8:22–23 KJV 1900

22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. 23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

We must approach the Bible as a whole and not simply as parts. This seems mean. This seems cruel. And in the moment, to that disciple, it probably seemed inconsiderate. But I believe that there is a message, a single sentence, that Jesus wants this disciple to hear, needs this disciple to hear, and it will be delivered in a few months. But for this message to have impact, this disciple must follow Jesus now and leave his father behind to be buried by others. So Jesus commands, then He gets in the boat, and the disciples, including this one in whose shoes we are putting ourselves in right now, get in after Him.

We’ve already seen at length that one of the reasons why Jesus needed to leave right then and could not wait even a day, was so that the disciples and the other boats that were following Jesus could sail into a storm so strong that it would threaten their lives, only for Jesus to calm it with a simple command.

Then, you get to see Jesus exert authority over thousands of demons all at once, and He doesn’t even break a sweat. But immediately after, the whole region is demanding that Jesus leave. Jesus came and crossed the sea, the disciples battled through a storm, this disciple (you) left your dead (or possibly dying) father, just to be cast out of the region? That’s not fair. That’s not right. You had missed your father’s funeral for what? one person?

Is this a good turnout? Does Jesus actually Do All Things Well?

Well, at least there will be 13 disciples now it seems. Wait, nope. After all the trouble y’all had gone through to leave the night before and arrive right then, Jesus is not letting Joe follow them? He’s going to leave him there? Alone?

What kind of thoughts would you have had? “Does Jesus actually care about others? He’s leaving this guy alone among thousands that don’t believe in him. He made me leave my family when they were grieving, when I am grieving. And just a few days ago, Jesus didn’t even care to see His own family. He refused them and called us his family.”

But you continue to follow Jesus. And then you see how Jesus cared for the woman with the issue of blood. The compassion he showed to Jairus’ daughter. You witness Jesus visit Nazareth and almost get killed by the people He had grown up around.

A few weeks later, you return from preaching for several weeks with a fellow disciple, excited, only to find out that Jesus goes through a devastating ordeal similar to what you had gone through. You had lost your father, and Jesus had lost his cousin, ministry partner, and close friend — John the Baptist. “Maybe,” you think, “Jesus will finally know what you are going through.” But what you see instead is that Jesus puts others before himself. Yes, Jesus sought a moment to get away and grieve, but when a crowd of around 15-20,000 people showed up, Jesus put their needs before His.

He did so even when the majority of them had only continued to follow Jesus so that they could get free food. Then, you watch many people do what had, no doubt, been a temptation for you to do — they turned away from Jesus and chose not to follow Him anymore. You see Jesus turn to you and the other 11 and ask the question, “Will you also turn away?” And before you have time to even think about it, you hear Peter answer, “Where else would we go? You have the words of life.”

Not long after that, you accompany Jesus to Tyre and Sidon, and there, a woman recognizes who Jesus is, somehow. She follows the group pleading and crying, “Jesus, please help my daughter.” But this is Jesus’ chance to finally get away and have some peace and quiet for a little while. Moreover, it is a time for you to get away and maybe, finally be able to grieve without a crowd that doesn’t even let you eat in peace. But this woman, she follows you to the house where y’all are staying. You and some other disciples go to Jesus and ask Him to send her away, she’s so annoying.

But Jesus begins to speak to the woman, and you wonder if Jesus will show compassion on her too, even though she’s not Jewish. But He doesn’t. He calls her a dog, well, he calls her a pet, but still, it seems that Jesus is going to be cruel and harsh to her just as he was to you.

But wait, He is smiling at her? Now He has sent her on her way with her daughter delivered from a demon? Why does she get her request? You’ve been following Jesus, and when you finally ask Him for something that is important to you, you get told to get in the boat. But when this Gentile woman asks for something, she gets it? How is that right? How is that even fair?

And now, instead of resting, now you’re traveling back to Galilee, but your going through the Decapolis regions. Great… Another opportunity to be thrown out. And as you reach the shores of the Sea of Galilee on this foreign side, thousands of people are following y’all. And Jesus comes to a stop at the top of a hill, and people start bringing him their sick family and friends. They are literally shoving these people in front of Jesus and running off to get more, and Jesus is healing them. He tells them to not say anything to anyone, like that has ever worked before… and the more He tells them, the more they seem to repeat it. And the reality suddenly hits you — just a few months ago, you were on these same shores, or close by, and some of these same people were yelling and screaming that Jesus needed to leave. That it hadn’t taken but a few minutes for Jesus to ruin everything there. Crowds of hundreds of people from all over the Gadarene region were telling Jesus and you and the others to get back in your boats and sail back from where you came.

And now they are bringing their sick to Jesus. Here and there, you here these Gentiles say, “Glory to the God of Israel!”

You remember one particular fellow, deaf and tongue tied. But what you remember even more is that Jesus is taking this man and others privately and healing them. And when Jesus finishes, with everyone, the crowd goes wild. They begin to praise the God of Israel all together! Over and over you hear the Gentiles shout, “Glory to the God of Israel! Glory to the God of Israel!”

And there is something else that they are shouting. And it takes you a little bit to make it out, but finally you realize what it is. “Jesus has done all things well! Jesus does all things well! He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. He does all things well!”

And that is something that you have been struggling with for several months now. “Does He really do all things well?” And there, among the cheering crowd, the noise drops out and you retreat into your mind. Of all the places to find peace and quiet, you find it among a crowd of about 4,000 people…

And you begin to realize things you had not before. If you had gone to your father’s funeral, if Jesus had waited one or two more days to cross the sea, or even an hour, you would have missed so much. If you would have chosen to walk away from Jesus and not get in the boat, you would have missed so much. Just in those months you saw, with your own eyes, not once, but two time Jesus control and calm devastating forces of nature.

You watch Jesus, with a simple command, run thousands of demons out of a man possessed. And you witnessed what you thought was cruel at the time, Jesus commanding this man to go alone to his house and his city and tell people about the Lord’s deliverance.

But now, what you see is that Jesus does do all things well. Had Jesus allowed Joe to accompany you, the crow would have been afraid of Jesus, and at worst, they would be persecuting y’all for being there. But right now you are witnessing something that in your wildest dreams you never thought would happen — Gentiles honestly praising Jesus and the God of Israel, the one, true God.

You get to be a part of all of this. You have gotten to experience this because you chose to do something that was very uncomfortable to you. You chose to obey even when it made you sad. You chose to get in the boat and leave behind a grieving family that will probably never full appreciate Jesus like you do now. All because you chose to get in the boat.

And they may never realize it. In fact, very few people will ever fully understand it the way you do. Your mother and your siblings may not agree with it, but you know that Jesus does all things well.

I do not know if this is the way it happened for this particular, unnamed disciple that asked to go bury his father or not. I do not know. But can know that there are many people throughout the Bible who had doubts about what God was doing and who stuck it out. They didn’t quit. They followed even when it felt like they were dying. They obeyed even when it cost them everything. They continued even when it didn’t make sense. They persevered when it wasn’t fair. And in the end, they all came to the same conclusion — God does all things well.

Very briefly think of David. If anyone had a reason to stop trusting God it was David, the second king of Israel.

Throughout David’s life, though he is not perfect, he seeks to do God’s will and he seeks to follow God, and when he sins, he seeks God’s forgiveness. And I don’t believe anyone else wrote more about their struggle with the world as they tried their best to follow the Lord than David did. He didn’t hold back either. If ever there was a manly man that was in touch with his emotions, it was David. And he wrote them out in songs.

If David were a musician in the early 2000s, he would have been an emo star. David had no fear or shame writing about how though he was trying to live holy and follow God, the world seemed to be against him, his heart was in the depths of despair, and it there were men who were unjustly accusing and slandering him. He wrote about how it seemed that the wicked prevailed and his life was drained even though he was the one that was walking uprightly and the wicked seemed to go unpunished.

When times like this would happen he would write things like Psalm 69:1-3

Psalm 69:1–3 KJV 1900

1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

While he is waiting on God, his heart is failing, his world is getting darker, and he is about to be overwhelmed.

But look at the end of the psalm

Psalm 69:30–34 KJV 1900

30 I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox Or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. 32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: And your heart shall live that seek God. 33 For the Lord heareth the poor, And despiseth not his prisoners. 34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, The seas, and every thing that moveth therein.

Why? Because God does all things well. I am going to continue to wait on God, because no matter what happens to me, God does all things well.

Psalm 63:1 KJV 1900

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, My flesh longeth for thee In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

This whole Psalm is a song of praise for how great God is and how God is his helper. This is important because notice the introduction to the Psalm - It’s written by David when he is in the wilderness of Judah. When does he find himself there? When he is being chased and hunted down by his own son Absalom. How can David write this very famous psalm of praise when he is in this situation? Because he knows that God does all things well!

Psalm 62 is written in the same time period, and it is a remarkable psalm of David trusting God when everything and everyone is against him.

I encourage you to read and study the following Psalms: 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 28, 37, 40, 42, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 141, and 142. These psalms are written in times when David’s faithfulness and obedience to the Lord are being tested. And they all conclude the same thing — God does all things well.

Application

Have you come to the realization that God does all things well? Not just the good things. But everything. Even the things that you consider bad things.

When your car broke down, He did all things well.

When your family got sick, he did everything well.

When your friend passed away, He does all things well.

When the bank account is empty, He does all things well.

When He calls you to discomfort, He does all things well.

When He messes up your schedule, He does all things well.

When you obey and people hate you for it, He does all things well.

When it costs so much to be faithful, He does all things well.

When your tired because you are following His guidance, He does all things well.

When it seems like you can’t catch a break, He does all things well.

When you do what is right, when you are trusting and waiting on God, when you are loving others like you should be but everything seems unfair, say it with me, He does all things well.

You may not see it now, you may not see it for months or even years, but you and I need to know that God does ALL things well, even when at the moment it may seem unfair or even cruel.

He loves us well, He cares for us well, He guides us well, He provides for us well. He does all things well.

He does all things well doesn’t mean you have to pretend the pain is small; it means there is a wise, loving hand underneath you, holding you, even here. And He is doing that well too.

Invitation

Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, I am having trouble with truly accepting that God indeed does all things well. There are hard times that I am going through, trauma that I have gone through, and I have a hard time truly believing that God does all things well. Would you pray for me?”

Life Group

Split up into smaller groups around the auditorium.

1. Did anything stand out to you from the sermon? Any questions or concerns?

2. If you were one of the townspeople who lost 2,000 pigs in Mark 5, how do you think you would have reacted to Jesus at first?

3. Read Matthew 8:21-22. What makes Jesus’ words to the disciple sound so harsh at first, and how does the wider story of the Gospels help you understand them differently?

Matthew 8:21–22 KJV 1900

21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

4. Is there an area of your life right now where you quietly feel, “Jesus did not do this well”? What emotions come up when you think about that situation?

5. When you suffer, do you tend to question God’s goodness, His power, or His nearness more? How does this sermon’s picture of Jesus challenge or affirm that?

6. How can you imitate “Crazy Joe” this week — simply telling others what the Lord has done for you, even if they previously misunderstood Jesus or pushed Him away?

7. Identify one “hard thing” you are facing right now. What concrete step can you take this week to obey Jesus in that area, even while your feelings are still catching up?