Return of the King

Mark 7:31-37

Transcript

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Thank you, Drew. And uh thank you, Audrey and Zach, as well and your family. Good morning to you guys. We uh are out of room in the parking lot, so uh we got a carpool next. Can you carpool next week? Can we do that? anybody can we get a bus from ETSU for just uh Mike has offered to shuffle, we shuttle people, we can we can do that as well. So um over at Lowe's, yeah. He can he can meet us. If you don't have a ride next week, call somebody here, we'll get you a ride. But um, or if you if you don't have a spot, I should say. Um but good morning. Uh uh uh it's good to be with you this morning. We've had a wonderful morning of worship already, and that was wonderful seeing the kids lead this morning. Uh and um we're trying to make a point of of doing that on on these fifth Sundays as we worship together, and and so we're so so blessed and so thankful for all of our our precious children and um so thankful for all the kids that are on the way in this fellowship as well, right? We've got we've got several of those as well, and so thank you, uh kids, for for helping us uh lead this morning. Um I also want to again thank thank Audrey and Zach and their family um not only for coming this morning, but just for serving the Lord in that way. And our prayers are with you guys, and I pray that can be a connection uh through prayer and support for many years to come. But but we appreciate uh Drew getting them uh this morning to come and um and you guys coming and sharing. So um I'm gonna ask you to turn with me to Mark chapter 7, if you will. Mark chapter 7, and we're gonna uh continue on this Palm Sunday and our in our study through the gospel according to Mark. Uh we're not gonna read the traditional Palm Sunday text this morning in our time about how Jesus rode in uh to Jerusalem uh to open up that final week before his crucifixion and resurrection. But that is your homework assignment tonight. I believe that that's the devotion uh that we have. Yes, yeah. So get excited about that. Uh Drew mentioned that earlier. I'm really excited about um about these devotions through Holy Week that Drew's put together for us and uh that he'll put on Church Center uh later today. So please look at that. Lead your families uh through that this week as we prepare our hearts for uh Resurrection Sunday, which is a week from today. Uh but those will start today, and and that I think that's actually gonna be the text uh today, that that triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But our text this morning is gonna be in Mark chapter 7, and uh really contains a similar level of excitement about the person and work of Jesus Christ. So uh we're gonna see Jesus in this text return to the region called the Decapolis. Uh anybody remember that from early earlier on in Mark, you may remember that. Um, and that's where we saw him uh in in Mark chapter 5 doing some ministry there, and we'll we'll get into that. So our title this morning is gonna be The Return of the King, um, to which uh three or four of you came up before knowing the title, and we're like, oh, are we talking about Lord of the Rings today? And uh we're not talking about Lord of the Rings today, and I don't even have a reference for Lord of the Rings, unfortunately, which I haven't I'm sorry, Paul, I haven't reached that level of preaching yet, but um but nonetheless we're gonna talk about an even greater return of the king um this morning. So I'm gonna ask you to stand with me, we're gonna read the text. So starting in verse 31 of chapter 7. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Decapolis. 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, and taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting uh after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephatha, that is, be open. And his ears were open, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for uh this morning of worship. Lord, we thank you for what we just read. We thank you for who you are and the great power that is in your name and in your word. Uh Father, we we thank you for uh Zach and Audrey and their family. And I just want to echo uh Drew's prayers earlier, Lord. We just pray protection on this family, Lord. We thank you for the calling that that you've put on their lives, and um we just pray that they would they would grow deeper and deeper um in intimacy with you, Father, uh, through this, and that you would use them to um to reach the nations, Father. We uh pray for uh the region where they are going. And we we pray that uh for those people that you would open hearts before them, Father. That um, Lord, I I know this has to be a little uh scary stepping out in faith uh and and and stepping your family out in faith, Father. So I pray that you would calm their anxieties, Lord, reaffirm that calling to them. And Lord, just give them everything that they need uh in this process, Father. I pray that you would raise up uh those those prayer partners, those financial partners. Um Lord, you've called them for a purpose and you will take care of them, Father. And we we trust in that, Lord, and we we pray that um even from some of our congregation may may just connect with that, Lord, and say, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be one of those partners that that gives and certainly that praise, Father. And let us be a congregation that will hold them in prayer. Um But Father, help them to know that that they have um our support and our love. Uh Father, I pray that as they're on the field, they would feel that support and that love from the people they know and love around here. Um But God, I'm so thankful for their witness, for their testimony, and for their sacrifice to go. Will you just protect them and give them everything they need, Lord? Um Father, you're the God of miracles. Um and so we pray that you would just give them everything that they could possibly need and even abundantly more. Um and Father, as we open your word this morning, this text, I pray that you would give me the words that I need this morning. Um no one here needs to hear from me. Uh we're here to hear from you, Lord. So I pray that you would speak through me just the words that you would have me here today and that you would have um have us all here this morning. Convict us where we need conviction, Lord. Uh Lord, encourage and comfort us where we need that this morning. You know exactly what each heart uh needs, and you can use this text to reach all of that, Father. So I pray that uh you would do that, Lord. We know that your word does not return void. And so, Father, let your work, uh let your word just do its work this morning. And we love you and we thank you again for this opportunity to open the word together, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Well, if you'll uh remember back to last week, um Patrick led us through verses 24 through 30, and we saw Jesus uh venturing outside of Galilee and into uh the Gentile territories of Tyre and Sidon. And there Jesus ministered to a Serophonician woman, a Gentile, and her demon-possessed daughter, uh, in response to this Gentile's great, great and persistent faith. Um it seems from the reading of Matthew and Mark that Jesus went there, went to these regions primarily to minister to this one woman. We're really not told of any other um stories there. Um and so it seems that she had a, you know, that was a large part of why Jesus went to this region to minister to this one woman and to teach his disciples about true faith, and maybe to show that true faith and action through this Gentile woman, and to show them that the fact that his kingdom was not just going to be just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. Jesus is for all. And so Jesus seems to be on this long missionary journey with his disciples, uh traveling long distances and giving them really a first-hand preview, some one-on-one attention, and a first-hand preview of what their lives are going to look like when he's no longer there with them physically. And so, as we open our text this morning in verse 31, it says that they returned from Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. Now, if you if you look on a map, and your Bible may have a map there, especially if you have a study Bible, you may have a map there. And you would see that this route to the Decapolis is about 120 miles long. This is a long route. It's not certainly not the straightest route from Tyre to uh the Decapolis. In fact, um, if you're looking on the map, Tyre is way up in the northwest of the Sea of Galilee. Um Sidon is even further north than that. And then where he is in this text, the Decapolis, is way back down at the Sea of Galilee on the shore in the Decapolis. So they have really uh taken the long way around here. Um they've literally been all over the map in these few verses. But this is Jesus, um this is giving Jesus plenty of private time to teach his disciples one-on-one about what it means to follow him. And verse 31 says that they finally reached the region of the Decapolis. Now, again, we saw this region in chapter 5, and the Decapolis was a region uh made up of ten cities and uh predominantly a Gentile region. There were Jews in this region, um, but there were also a lot of Gentiles in the region of the Decapolis. And last time Jesus encountered this region, it was it was a very bittersweet ending, if you'll remember. And that's going to bring us to our first point this morning, an unexpected welcome. An unexpected welcome. Remember with me back to chapter 5, uh, the last time Jesus was in the Decapolis, that Jesus healed a demoniac who no one in the region uh wanted to be around. No one in the region could control or contain, not even with chains were they able to contain control of this uh demoniac. He was a torturer of this region because of the many demons that possessed this man. And if you'll remember back to that text, in an instant, Jesus sets this man free. What no one else could do, uh Jesus in an instant sets this man free, casting the demons, uh remember, into a herd of pigs. Um and when the people saw the result of this miracle, um, they weren't really excited. They weren't happy about it, uh, they weren't begging Jesus to do more. In fact, Mark says that they begged Jesus to depart from the region. They were afraid of the power that they had witnessed, and they begged him to leave. And Jesus did leave at that time, but he left there with them this healed demoniac. Remember, this man was healed, and he wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus said, No, you stay here and you be a witness. And so he left the demoniac there, the healed demoniac. And verse 20, there, um, that's Mark 5, verse 20, says that the man went away and began to proclaim in the decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. Jesus, at their request, leaves them, but he doesn't leave them without a witness. This hilled man goes on and he tells everyone, apparently. And so by the time we get to Mark chapter 7, the thoughts towards Jesus have changed dramatically. They go from being afraid of Jesus and wanting nothing to do with him, to now they are bringing all of the broken to Jesus for healing. They're recognizing his healing power and they're bringing everyone to him. Now, Mark gives us a representative example of this that we just read. But Matthew gives us more of a summary of what's going on here. So Matthew 15, um, verses 30 and 31 gives us that summary, and it says that it says that great clout great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel. That's what Matthew says about his time here in the Decapolis. These are predominantly uh Gentile people now glorifying the God of Israel and welcoming Jesus with joy and excitement. So, what a change in this crowd from what we saw earlier. And based on what we see in the Gospels, it seems that the change is primarily predominantly from this one man's witness. This one man that Jesus left behind. Now, there may have been other believers that had heard here and there, but but it seems predominantly that this man had witnessed to this region, and now the attitude has totally changed towards Jesus. One moment, I mean, imagine this man. One moment he is he is tortured by demons, and therefore torturing other people, anyone who would walk by, a complete outcast in society. Everyone's afraid of him. He is a feared and honestly terrible shell of a man. The next moment he's bringing a whole region to Christ, to a better understanding of Jesus. And it's all because God saved him and then he was faithful to be what we call here a practical missionary. That's the phrase that we use here. And Jesus left him right where he was to be a faithful witness right there. And the man took him at his word and he began to tell everyone. He was a practical missionary to the decapitus, and we see the results here in this passage. He had a story to tell. Do you have a story to tell? Anybody have a story to tell? Amen. I'm not going to make you tell it like right here, but if you have a story to tell, say amen. Thank you. You have a story to tell about how Jesus has changed your life. This man had a story to tell, and he testified to the power of Jesus. What a picture of the calling to which each of us as Christians are called. We all have a story to tell if you've been saved by Jesus Christ. And when we are faithful to just step out and proclaim, our God can move mountains with that. I can't imagine a more distinct contrast than what happened in this region. It is truly unbelievable, unthinkable. And that's what our Lord does when we're just faithful to his call. He does the unthinkable. Jesus, in his great grace, not only left them a witness, this man, but he also now returns to this region. He didn't have to do that either. I mean, these people said, no, we don't want you here, Jesus. And he returns to check in on how things are going. Again, to this region who who had rejected him. What unbelievable grace of our Savior. I mean, he is just so, so graceful. Matthew gives us the overview here, but Mark is going to zoom in on one particular encounter. And this account is only written down by Mark. We don't see it in the other gospels. So that's all that Matthew says about it, what we read earlier, and then we don't read anything in Luke or John. So this particular encounter is only here in Mark chapter 7. So let's zoom in with Mark, and we'll go from an unexpected welcome to an urgent request. Mark says in verse 32 that they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. So in the midst of this great, great crowd that we saw in Matthew, we don't necessarily see that in Mark, but we we get the picture with Matthew, that there's this huge, great crowd of people, all with their own problems, wanting Jesus to heal them. And then this group of friends brings to Jesus a deaf man with a speech problem and begged for him to heal them. Now, according to society at that time, this man was, by all accounts, an unimportant, insignificant man to his society. First of all, he was most likely a Gentile, right? He was most likely a Gentile, which for the Jewish mind made him a dog, as we saw last week, right? I mean, they just thought of those people as dogs. Of course, Jesus didn't, but that's how a lot of the Jewish people thought of these uh Gentiles. The average Jew would greatly look down on this man just for being, uh, first of all, a Gentile. And perhaps they might even think, well, he's kind of deserving of his ailment because he's a Gentile. I mean, it's just because some of the mindset that some of the Jewish people would have had at this time. There was a lot of hatred and animosity towards the Gentiles. But even beyond that, this man is deaf and he can't speak well, if at all. And there's a huge communication barrier between this man and everyone else on earth. And he would have been seen as a burden to society and ignored by most people. Just totally ignored by most people. Some would have even seen his deafness as a curse from God for some sin that he must have committed. Some people would have viewed it that way. We know that was a common thought in the ancient world. We even see that in John chapter 9 when Jesus heals a blind man. Um the Pharisees ask him, Did this man sin to make him blind, or did his parents sin? Like that seems to be the only two solutions there, or the only two reasons this man could be blind. So this was a common thought that if you're blind, if you're deaf, uh, well, perhaps it's a curse from God because of some sin that you created or that you you committed, excuse me. Um of course we know that's not the truth, but that was some of the thought in the first century. It was assumed by many that if you had an ailment like this, you deserved it. So help um was difficult to find. You know, even in our society today, we we have a lot of resources, um, but life is still not set up very well for a deaf person, is it? I mean, can you imagine? Some of you may have family members or or or friends who who are deaf or who are blind, and and life is just not set up very well for people with those uh kinds of disabilities. And often we, those people are ignored or often just forgotten, even in our churches. And you know, we need more people who would who would commit their ministries to serving people with these kinds of disabilities, you know, with by sign language or or braille, obviously, for um for the blind. We need people who who God would raise up who would be committed to those kinds of ministries as well. Well, so often uh these people are overlooked, people with these kinds of disabilities. But in the first century, um it was almost unbearable to have this kind of a disability. In fact, out of all of the uh so-called outcasts that we've seen Jesus interact with, and we've seen many through Mark already, some might say that this is the most outcast of them all. Like this might be the lowest of the low. He's a Gentile, he's deaf, he's kind of just unimportant to society. But this man apparently has some good friends, at least. This is reminiscent of the paralytic uh lowered through the roof by his friends back in Mark chapter 2, if you'll remember that. Uh this man's friends see him and they see his need, and what do they do? They take him to Jesus. That's what they do here. And verse 33 says that Jesus took him aside from the crowd privately. Now, that may not seem like much to us, but remember, there are probably thousands of people there, each of them with their own problem, each of them pressing in, trying to get Jesus' attention. And Jesus singles out this one man who's deaf and has a speech impediment, and he takes him aside. This man who's been ignored, forgotten his entire life, marginalized, rejected. Jesus sees him in that moment. Now, Jesus could have just said a word, or even just thought a thought, and this man would have been healed. In fact, we just saw that in the previous section that Patrick taught on last week, where Jesus heals this little girl without even being present. He apparently just thought a thought, and boom, she is healed. So we know he can do that, right? He could have easily just healed this man in the midst of the big crowd, just again, kind of just thought a thought, and that man was healed, but he never really interacted with him. Suddenly this man could could hear and talk, and Jesus didn't have to stop what he was doing. He could have done that way. He could have done it that way. But I think that's the whole point here. Jesus was pleased to stop what he was doing and spend time, private time with this man who society saw as such a burden. Isn't that amazing that the creator of the universe sees this man and sees you right where you are? He sees us and cares for us, and he offers himself to us, he offers his presence to us, he offers freely his ear to listen and his attention and his comfort and his healing. No matter what is going on in this world, sometimes I think we think, well, God, God's too busy with so many other things in this world. I mean, that's kind of a ridiculous thought when you think about it. But we do think these things. There's so much going on in this world, God must be busy. No matter how much is going on in this world, uh, God is prepared to take you aside and set his love on you specifically and give you his attention. Draw near to him, and he will draw near to you. Jesus sees this man. This man's friends see this man, and they don't discount him. What a testimony they are. Even these Gentile pagans, they're such a testimony to us of just seeing the unseen here. All right, they see him and they don't know what to do, but but they're going to take him to this one that they've heard could do something. And they take him to Jesus. You know, there's a powerful ministry in just seeing people. Just seeing people. And not teaching and preaching and giving them all your wisdom, but just seeing someone. Just noticing someone. You know, it's great to have answers and to read all the books and to have all the deep theology and always have the right counsel and always know the right thing for a person to do. But many times there's a greater ministry in just seeing and sitting with someone, noticing someone, taking the time just to care and serve someone. You've heard it said that people don't care how much you know until they know what? How much you care. And that is so true. Sometimes ministry is just about showing up, just showing up for people. And sometimes it's just about sitting with someone who's suffering, and you don't know the words to say. You don't need to know the words to say. Sometimes it's just about celebrating, celebrating a baby like we did here yesterday. And there's gonna be plenty of more opportunities, right? Sometimes it's just about showing up and celebrating with somebody. And sometimes it's just about taking a meal to someone to ease the burden, sending a coffee to somebody. You know, just simple, basic service. Sometimes ministry is just so much more simple than we make it. And we miss so many of those quote-unquote little opportunities because we're in search of the big thing that God's doing in our lives. And we're all about that big thing, and I gotta know God's will for my life, but I can't just sit, I don't have the time to just celebrate with this person or mourn with this person. Well, you're missing it. That is the ministry. Ministry is made up of all of these little things, so-called little things. And when we forget those simple parts, sometimes people don't really care about your answers. You can have them all, all the answers. But if they don't know that you care about them, they don't want your answers. If we can't be his hands and feet, why would they care about us trying to be his mouthpiece? You know, I'm so thankful for the many of you who are maybe you're scared to death of speaking, but you do so much ministry that matters behind the scenes. You know, I I think I think of Megan and Logan who who head up our hospitality team, um, I don't know if either of them are in here right now, but um, they just faithfully and consistently uh plan hospitality in this church. You know, whether it is a shower or um, you know, serving somebody for a funeral or a mill train or whatever. Somebody has to plan that, right? And put that all together. Um and and cleaning this church, right? Just somebody's got to plan this stuff. Just showing up in those, uh, you know, maybe we would say quote unquote little ways that are totally unnoticed a lot of times. And through that, they're teaching us how to mourn with each other, how to celebrate with one another. And that is ministry. Just as much as this is ministry. You understand that? Don't be going and just always looking at the big thing. Learn to sit with someone, learn to sit in the in the little moments, learn to just show up for people in their highs and in their lows. I think our church is uh generally pretty good at that. I'm so proud of that. I think we can also grow in that, right? I think each of us as individuals can say, how can I grow in that? How can I grow in seeking the little moments of ministry? Just seeing someone, just seeing someone, making them feel seen. I'm so thankful for all the people who do that. I'm so thankful for the ones that make me feel seen sometimes when I'm discouraged and frustrated, things that you guys will never know about. But a text that I might get or somebody serves me in that way, serves my family in that way, and it's it is it means so much to us. Words can't describe how much that means to us. That is ministry there. And I'm so thankful for that. Those are the let's start to see those things as the big moments. Okay, the wedding shower, that's a big moment of ministry, not a little one. All these babies that are coming, show up to the shower because that's a big moment of ministry. Not a little one that you don't have time for. I mean, you might have a scheduled conflict, that's okay. But like if you can't, let's show up. Let's show these people that we're celebrating with them. When something bad happens, let's show people that we're there to mourn with them, both inside this congregation and outside of this congregation. The world needs to see this too. Those little things are really the things that can bring someone to Jesus. As we see the friends do in this passage. So let me challenge you to inconvenience yourself to make others, again, both inside this congregation and outside this congregation, to make others feel seen. That's what these friends do here. That's what Jesus does so beautifully here. We're gonna see that even more in our next point, which is an unusual method. What we see Jesus do here in this healing is uh, to say the least, a little bit strange to us. Did you read what he did there? It's very weird. Um honestly, we might we might say it's a little gross, actually, Jesus. Like, what are you doing here exactly? He first of all puts his fingers in the man's ears. Then it seems that he spits saliva on his fingers and touches the man's tongue. I mean, it's Jesus, so I don't know how I feel about it, but you know, it's don't do that at the park, okay? Just Jesus can do that's one of these things Jesus can get away with, you cannot. Okay, so don't do that. Do other things. What is going on here exactly? Well, you know, saliva uh in the ancient world was thought to have healing properties. Now, Jesus, let me be clear, Jesus is not saying that it's his saliva that's going to do the healing. Okay, Jesus doesn't need to do this. But rather, he's trying to communicate with this man in a way that this man can understand. Remember, this man's deaf. Now, again, could Jesus just say nothing and heal him instantly? Everybody say, Yes, he can. Yes, he can. He absolutely could. Um, but instead, he he gets on this man's level, he sees him again, pulls him to the side, and he communicates to him in sign language that he can understand. So he touches his ears to say, I see where the problem is. I see what's going on here. He he touches his tongue, he spits uh to say, I'm going to heal you. Because this man may have thought it's alive, okay? That he associates that with healing. Then he looks up to heaven so that there's no mistake in this man's mind about where the healing is coming from. This is from God, right? Again, this man may have never experienced this kind of attention in his life. I don't know if he was like this since birth or not, but he may have never experienced this kind of attention. And the God of the universe is connecting with him right on his level. And then it says that Jesus sighed. What is that about? He sighed. You know, sometimes commentators can be ridiculous. Uh, some commentators have have said that this indicates that this miracle was particularly difficult to do. And that's what I just want to throw it in the fire. I'm just like, I just can't, like, that's so stupid. I'm sorry. We're talking about God who spoke the universe into existence. This was not difficult for him to do. And I'm ashamed to have even read those words. I am now dumber for reading those words, actually. Now, commentary I don't ditch all the commentaries. There's, you know, I that's where I pretty much live, right? But um, yeah, sometimes you're just like, that was off. That that that was off there. That was one of those time, those times. Um, kind of a ridiculous thought. No, this wasn't difficult uh for Jesus to pull off. I think again, this is about connection with humanity. Uh, Jesus did a similar thing at the tomb of Lazarus right before he raised him from the dead. Um, and and we see the shortest verse in the Bible, which is y'all know this, Jesus wept, right? Jesus wept, and then Jesus healed, he raised him from the dead. Why did he weep? Why did he weep? Like again, that wasn't hard for him either. What was going on there? Here he sighs or he groans. Jesus is looking around and he's seeing all these desperate people. Again, there's thousands of people here. All this sickness and disease. He sees this man marginalized and ignored right in front of him and suffering. And I think he's just overwhelmed by the weight of what sin has caused in this world. He feels that. He feels what you feel and what I feel. When we lose someone, or when someone's sick, when something goes wrong, he feels that. He lived it. He feels it even heavier than we feel it. Yes, he knows he can heal this man, and he knows he can heal everyone else there, but it also should have never been this way. It shouldn't have come to this. It shouldn't have been this way. We were made for perfection, for a world with no suffering, no disease, no deafness, but sin entered in through humanity's willing choice, and with it came disease and suffering and death. Jesus isn't distant from the pain that we feel because of the fall. The brokenness in our bodies, the brokenness in our relationships, the suffering in our lives here on earth. He feels that pain as a high priest who has been through it and who understands perfectly what we're going through. Perhaps here he's not only feeling that weight, but also feeling the weight of what it was going to cost him ultimately to get rid of all this.

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Right?

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He can end the deafness for this man right here, but that doesn't solve this man's ultimate problem. And he knows that to solve the ultimate problem of life, which is sin, to reverse the curse, it's gonna cost him his life. It's gonna cost him going to the cross and suffering. That was still future to his mission here. So perhaps the weight of that is on him, and he's just like, oh God, suffering. He understands. And we hope we don't just love Jesus this morning because he can fix our circumstances. It's not just about fixing stuff for us. It's even more about his love and his compassion for us through our suffering. His nearness and his understanding, even when he doesn't just remove the circumstance. It's about his willingness to face the cross and to ultimately fix all of this for eternity. He will fix it. He will fix all of it for eternity, even if he doesn't in this life fix that pain. But it's gonna it would cost him his life. It would cost him facing the wrath of his heavenly father against that sin. Jesus doesn't promise us that every circumstance will be healed in this life, but he does promise his presence and his understanding and his comfort. But in this circumstance, he also brings instant physical healing. Mark says that Jesus said this Aramaic word, efatha, which means be opened. And immediately this man's ears and tongue respond to the authoritative word of God Himself, and he's completely healed. Suddenly, he can hear every word. And maybe even heard the last syllable of that Aramaic term. I don't know. I like to think that. But then he's instantly healed, he can hear everything, he can speak now. But what a miracle of creation, literally forming those hearing organs right before their eyes. Because his power is unmatchable and his word is authoritative. If he says something, everything listens. So he heals this man, and that that healing leads to our next point, an uncontainable witness. Verse 36 says that Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. You kind of have to love their zeal here. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen Jesus tell people to keep quiet about his healings. We've seen it several times in Mark. And we can speculate on all kinds of reasons why. I think primarily it was because the mission was not yet complete. If they go tell everybody, they don't have all the information yet. He's not just a healer. But he's come for a greater mission. He wasn't there to be an earthly king. He wasn't there to, okay, let's start a riot and overthrow Rome. That wasn't his purpose. And of course, that could have been what the crowd would have done with that information. His mission, though, was spiritual first. And he had a job to do, and that job was the cross. And it wasn't yet time for the cross. So he charges them to remain quiet. But they can't. They can't remain quiet. And it's kind of a hard thing, you know, to explain how this deaf man who couldn't speak or, you know, spoke very poorly, how now he can hear and now he can speak perfectly without telling the story of what happened. I mean, it's kind of hard to not share that information. People are going to want an explanation. Ultimately, these people were disobedient to Jesus' command. We have to acknowledge that. They were disobedient to what Jesus told them. But you do kind of have to admire the zeal and the excitement, and maybe even envy that excitement and that zeal a little bit. You know, I envy that excitement of these uninformed pagan Gentiles for the church today. As a whole, the church today doesn't have half of this excitement about the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's quite ironic that these people who are commanded not to speak couldn't keep their mouths shut. But we, the church today, have been given the whole story and have been commanded to speak of what he's done. And we so often do everything we can to keep our mouths shut. We need perfect circumstances to share of his goodness and his grace, don't we? And we have the more complete knowledge that they were lacking. They didn't have the whole picture yet. We're on this side of the cross and of the resurrection. We know he has defeated not just disease, not just deafness, but he has defeated sin and death. They would have been proclaiming an incomplete message, but we have everything we need, including God Himself, dwelling in us as believers. Yet, where is our zeal and excitement to proclaim Him? Where's your zeal this morning? They had experienced something real. Have you? Have you really? Has He really transformed you? Or is this just about external appearances? We ought to have twice the zeal of these people. As people who have been guaranteed a future in paradise with God Himself and who have the Holy Spirit living in us, we ought to have twice the zeal. If you have something to celebrate and proclaim, then celebrate it and proclaim it. Amen? I guarantee they weren't so caught up in how they delivered it. They probably weren't. Did he did he say, did he spit on his finger first, or then the ear thing? Or was it the ear thing? I guarantee they weren't really getting in their heads about it. They just saw that this deaf man could hear, and they just had to go tell somebody. They saw something real. And it changed them. And they had to go share this good news. It just spilled over. It wasn't fancy, it wasn't put together, it just spilled over. And how much better, more complete news do we have on this side of the cross. And that news that we have is because this account was not just about healing the deaf. It pointed towards something greater. It pointed towards an ultimate fulfillment. That's going to be our last point as we close this morning. Mark, through the Holy Spirit, uses a couple of really specific words here that really bring out the significance of this passage. First of all, that word in verse 34, translated speech impediment, is a word found only here in the New Testament. In fact, it's not found anywhere else in the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament that they would have had in the first century. That they would have been working off the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint. And that word is not found anywhere else in the Old Testament, in the Greek, except one place, and that's in Isaiah chapter 35, verse 6. Mark seems to be drawing the reader's attention back to Isaiah 35. And so what is Isaiah 35 about? It is about Yahweh coming to save his people. It says that he will come with vengeance in verse 4 and with salvation. Then in verses 5 and 6, it says that when he comes, the eyes of the blind shall be open, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. There's that phrase from Mark 7. Isaiah goes on to describe what this future reign of God is going to look like on the earth when Yahweh comes. That's what Isaiah is talking about. Yahweh is going to come. Mark is saying, Yahweh has come. He's here. And he is in the person of Jesus Christ, who opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf and makes the mute tongue sing for joy. His reign has arrived in Jesus. This is another deity claim, and a claim that Jesus is this Messiah for whom the world has waited for. And his reign is not just for the Jews, but even in Decapolis, for the Gentiles, and ultimately for the entire world, all who would put their faith in his name, his reign is for that person. Verse 37, back in Mark, says that the crowd was astonished beyond measure. That's why they couldn't contain the witness, right? They were just astonished beyond measure. They were super abundantly astonished. Their minds were absolutely blown. And they declare this: He has done all things well. I love that proclamation. He does all things well. Maybe you need to hear that this morning. He does all things well. It takes us back to creation. Genesis 131, where God saw all he had created, and behold, it was very good. That's the same phrase. And in this new creation, he will restore all that's been lost, all that's been broken. He will make it very good again. He will make it perfect again. What we lost through the fall, what he groaned about here, he will restore. But again, it would take him defeating sin and death through his own death on a bloody cross and then triumphing over it all at his resurrection. At the cross, sin is dealt with. So that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, our sins are forgiven, totally covered, never to be brought up again. And ultimately, the effects of that sin will not be found in the paradise that is to come. The effects will be dealt with. Now, if you're in Christ, he's already dealt with your sin and that you're forgiven. But someday all of the effects of the fall will be gone. That's the ultimate fulfillment to which he's pointing to with all of these healings, including this deaf man here. There's an ultimate return of the king coming. I'm going to ask the band to come on up as we close. In this passage, the king returns to this region of the decapolis, but there's an even greater return of this king coming to this earth. And that is when Jesus steps off of his throne in heaven and physically steps foot on this earth and ushers in the full effects of his kingdom. This passage in Mark 7 is but a preview of what's coming. As we close this morning, I want us to fix our eyes on that ultimate return when he will make all things new. On this Palm Sunday, we worship this King. For whose coming we await. We await his second coming. He is worthy of all of our praise and honor, and he does all things well. While we await his return. The effects of that sin is not gone yet, is it? We're still living in the midst of the effects of sin, disease, death, periods of waiting and not understanding why, sickness, brokenness, suffering. And in the midst of that suffering, let's be reminded that he does all things well. He does all things well. You may not see it this morning, but rest assured he does all things well. Even in your current circumstance, he is working for your good and for his glory. He is present, he does see you, he does hear you, he does understand you. He's given his promise to never leave you nor forsake you and to draw near to you. So draw near to him. And he does all things well. If you don't know this savior, how could you not want to know this savior? Come and know him today. God offers himself to you freely because your sin has been paid for at the cross. So stop fooling with that. Stop living in that empty life of sin and come to him through repentance of sin and through faith in his name. And he will save you. He will save you. And to give you that hope you've been looking for. It's in Jesus. He has paid for your sin and place your trust in that. For those of us who do know him already, let's just celebrate this one during these next few moments. Let's celebrate this one who does all things well. And maybe sometimes we say that through the tears because the suffering in our life right now is just a lot. But be reminded, please. His presence is with you, and he does all things well. Let's proclaim his name. We have something to proclaim. We have a lot more to proclaim than they did. Oh, you got the whole story, Christian. You have the resurrection. Not only do you know about the cross where he paid for it, you know about the resurrection, the empty tomb, where he conquered over it. And because he conquered over it, everything he said is true. Everything he said is true. There is coming this ultimate fulfillment. This paradise where he will fix it all. But in these moments, in these moments, when we're not there yet, he offers you his presence. Will you draw near to him this morning? We're gonna, I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes and just consider Jesus for a few moments. Consider this one who has given himself for you and who offers himself to you and who has unmatchable power and who loves you dearly. We just ask the Holy Spirit, what will you have me do with this this morning? Holy Spirit, apply this to my heart right now, apply this to my life. Let you spend a few moments just in prayer with the Lord, and then we'll close in just a few moments by singing.