"Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They *brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they *implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today, thank you for joining us. We are thankful God has continued to bless our international reach as we strive to fulfill the Great Commission. We're grateful for your prayers and humblyask that you would pray for this ministry to continue to reach the lost wherever they may be.
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today, thank you for joining us. We are thankful God has continued to bless our international reach as we strive to fulfill the Great Commission. We're grateful for your prayers and humbly
We are often at one time or another moved by Jesus' compassion to speak words of comfort or touch those who are suffering from an incurable disease, while we are quick to feel sorry for them, maybe give a love offering to help make their lives a little more comfortable, but to actually get close enough to them to extend a hand to help them up, or invite someone who is hungry to our dinner table and comfort them in the process is another matter all together. We're called to love our neighbor as ourselves but do we love those who are out on the street, alienated from family and friends and do not look like us? Today, we should still
share the love of Christ with our neighbor, including our global neighbors of different races and cultures. We should never miss an opportunity for God to use us as His vessels to have an impact in the hearts of those God may still transform. Whether it's taking a meal to a family who has had a death in the family, taking the garbage down for an elderly neighbor or cutting the grass for someone recovering from surgery or inviting a new neighbor and their family over for a meal.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word for us today, for reminding us that there is often more than meets the eye. That unless we learn to pause and look at them closely, we'll miss the opportunity to appreciate them. Paying close attention to seemingly insignificant divine moments that are meant to teach us a lesson are the key to spiritual learning. Lord, grant us the heart of Christ, and reveal to us those You want us to tenderly reach out to where they are and so that we might be Your hands and feet, and meet their need with grateful hearts for all You have graciously done in and through our lives, even in the middle of our own distress. All for Your glory and for Christ's sake.
In His name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: Lord, Use Me
Open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 7, verses 31 through 37. Mark 7:31-37. I
invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our
minds. I pray that the Holy Spirit would help us to not only hear but
make application in our lives what He has to say to each of us today.
"Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They *brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they *implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
As we continue working our way the Gospel of Mark, we come to the end of the seventh chapter, Jesus has begun turning the corner, winding down His public ministry to spend time much needed time alone with the disciples to prepare them for the critical task of proclaiming the Gospel of salvation before He heads toward the cross. They traveled outside Israel into Gentile territory to escape the crowds, and the Pharisees and the scribes who hated Him and want Him killed to find much needed solitude and privacy to prepare the twelve for their future ministry. And you remember in our last message, He couldn't completely escape notice and He delivered the demon-possessed daughter of a woman who wouldn't take no for an answer, demonstrating great faith, giving us a preview of the Great Commission, reaching beyond the covenant people, before He sends His own into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature.
I love how God prepares us in our walk with Him through the unknown people we meet and the divinely ordered events and the seemingly unexpected circumstances we encounter as well as in the quiet moments of preparation. As we face the difficult situations in our lives, we must remember to fix our eyes on Christ, and trust Him, even when we don’t immediately understand why God leads us in uncomfortable and unknown destinations.
Let's look at verse 31, "Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis." The Decapolis known as the 10 cities, include Damascus, Philadelphia which is modern day Amman, Canatha, Scythoplis, Pella, Hippos, Gadara, Dion, Raphana and Gersa. Though His popularity was not as well known, He was not entirely unknown because His reputation preceded Him, due to the testimony of the demoniac who He told to proclaim what He had done throughout the region of Decapolis in Mark 5.
In Matthew's parallel account, he says "Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there." Obviously resting after a very long journey when "large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel." Matthew makes sure that we know "they glorified the God of Israel," not their pagan god.
In verse 32, Mark tells us "They *brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they *implored Him to lay His hand on him." By the way, this is one of three accounts that does not appear in the other three Gospels, it is only found here in Mark, possibly because he was writing to primarily Gentiles, worshiping their idols and false gods which explains why it does not contain the same degree of theology as the other three gospels, making it the shortest of the four gospels. We're not told what caused this man deafness, whether it is from a disease or illness from childhood or if he was born unable to hear. But the fact he had difficulty in speaking tells us he's been affected by deafness for some time. Since communicating with them was virtually impossible, and it was assumed they had limited mental capabilities, so it was common to treat them as outcasts. Hearing aids had not yet been developed and sign language was non-existent in those days. It's difficult to speak words you can't hear. The Jews typically believed people who had such disabilities were cursed by God and under His divine judgment. So whoever brought him to Jesus, implored Him to lay His hand on him. He had a reputation for engaging people and showing compassion to those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and touching those who the Pharisees and scribes viewed as unclean.
In verses 33-34, "Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" At first this may seem odd, but there is a beautiful tenderness in Jesus taking this man aside from the crowd, unlike our modern day so-called healers today who want all to see, seeking to fill their pockets with the world’s wealth! Jesus is giving him His full, undivided attention. He's probably been ignored most of his life. Then, in a symbolic gesture to communicates to the man that He understand what his issue is, He put His fingers into his ears. And that's not all, "after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;" With saliva is implied, He touched this man's tongue, to communicate His perceptiveness, I know you have a speech problem too. "And looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" He sighed or groaned as visual expression of compassion, to show him He understood his suffering. This man was being touched by God! Jesus wanted him to know that what is about to happen to him comes from heaven.
Verse 35, "And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly." In an instant, his ears were opened and he began speaking plainly. It's one thing to be able to hear, it's another thing to understand a language you’ve never heard before and speak it plainly without anybody teaching him. Humanly speaking, it's impossible. There is never a progression in any of Jesus' miracles, they are always immediate. If they were missing a hand or a foot, He gave them one. He gave new eyes to the blind, new limbs to the lame. Isaiah prophesied the Messiah’s healing, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy."
Verse 36, "And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it." Do not tell anyone seems like such a strange command especially to a man who has never been able to speak his whole life, naturally he'd want to tell everybody. This is not the first time He instructed people not to say anything, because that's not the whole story of who Jesus is. He came to demonstrate the heart of God and to authenticate His deity and He did it through healing. His mission would not be fulfilled until He is rejected, suffered, crucified and resurrected. That’s the full story. There is nothing speaks more clearly of God's love for mankind than a compassionate Savior on the cross.
"But the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it." Even though they couldn't contain themselves and were disobedient, spreading the news everywhere, Jesus' intended mission was accomplished in the Father’s time!
That brings us to verse 37, "They were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." He literally spoke a word and it happened. That reminds me of the creation account, when He spoke the world came into existence. Only God creates! Of course they were in complete awe, they've never seen anything like this before. They couldn’t help but tell the world of the perfection of His miracles. I find it interesting that those who were commanded not to tell anybody told everybody, everywhere and now that we have been commanded to tell others about what great things the Lord has done and most of us don’t say a word.
In Closing..
Even though Jesus wanted time alone with His disciples, to prepare them for what lies ahead, He still felt compassion for people who were suffering, those who were hurting. He met their physical needs before their spiritual needs. I believe He wants us to demonstrate His love and compassion by meet the needs those who are less fortunate than ourselves, trusting Him for our provision. Jesus is teaching His disciples then and now not to focus on our lack but to keep our focused on our Lord.
When people see the tender compassion of God, they give glory to God! I believe the reason unbelievers aren’t glorifying the name of God in our culture today, is
that they aren’t seeing enough of the transforming work of God among the so-called
people of God! Why should the world believe the Gospel has the power to transform lives, when your life hasn't changed? The world doesn't judge us by our theology, they judge us by our behavior. If as Christians, our lives have been changed, we ought to be telling and showing the world, "Look at what my Lord has done!" Mark is intentional in showing us how unbelievers responded to Jesus' miracle to give all of us the proper perspective of a great spiritual lesson. God wants to reveal Himself to the world, through the transformed lives of His people. Have we learned it yet? Lord, use me to put Your glory on display in unmistakable ways!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen