WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:08.560 So hopefully we've got in front of us uh Mark's Gospel, uh chapter seven and verse uh twenty-four. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:14.000 Let me pray as we come to the reading and preaching of the Word of God. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:22.079 Almighty God, your voice is powerful. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:26.000 The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:34.479 We thank you that your word comes from the lips of your Son, the Lord Jesus, in the power of your Holy Spirit. 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:35.920 It comes with power. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:39.280 We thank you too that it comes with kindness and grace. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:44.479 We pray that you would shepherd us by and through your word right now. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:49.039 Save us from hardening our hearts against your word. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:55.039 Enable us to receive it and to take it in, to feel its sweetness. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:58.880 We ask that it would do in our hearts what you wish it to. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:00.799 For Jesus' name's sake. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:01.759 Amen. 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:03.119 Amen. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.319 So let's listen to the words of Almighty God. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:14.400 So Mark chapter 7, I'm going to read from verse 24 down to chapter 8 and verse 10. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:20.319 And from there Jesus arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:25.200 And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:32.159 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:40.239 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:48.959 And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:57.439 But she answered him, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:04.560 And he said to her, For this statement you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:09.280 And she went home and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:17.599 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:23.840 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. 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:38.000 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him, Ephhaw, that is, be opened. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.960 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.919 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:49.280 But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:54.719 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.840 He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:12.000 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:18.319 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from far away. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:25.360 And his disciples answered him, How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:28.319 And he asked them, How many loaves do you have? 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:29.919 They said, Seven. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:44.400 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they set them before the crowd, and they had a few small fish. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.039 And having blessed them, he said that they also should be set before them. 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:52.800 And they ate and were satisfied. 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.680 And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:00.560 And there were about four thousand people. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:08.240 And he sent them away, and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:13.199 Well, thanks be to God for his word to us today. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:21.839 Sometimes Jesus says things that we wish he had not said. 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:26.079 Awkward things, sharp things. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:29.040 Like in verse 27. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:46.160 Imagine that Jesus was at a meal in your house, and he speaks to one of your family members, maybe a mother or a wife or a daughter, and he calls her a dog. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:51.279 And that is what Jesus says in verse 27. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:55.920 It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:59.839 Jesus knows exactly what he's doing and what he is saying. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.279 It feels like a deeply offensive thing to say. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:08.000 And nowadays in our culture, that would be a horrendous thing for a man to say to a woman, wouldn't it? 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:08.879 It's deeply sinful. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:13.839 No man should say something like that about or even let alone to a woman. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.839 Now back then it was offensive also, but in a different way. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:30.879 In Jesus' time in the first century, Jewish people commonly called all Gentile people, that is non-Jews, whether they were male or female, they called them dogs. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:40.639 Behind that term was a sense of we are special to God, and you, you are out there. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:46.639 You are unclean, you are far from God, and you're you're untouchable by us. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:50.000 We do not relate to you as being like us. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:55.839 Now Jesus does not make mistakes, uh, Jesus does not sin. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.319 So why does he say what he says? 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:03.439 Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:08.560 And unmistakably, he is talking about this lady and those who are like her. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:14.399 He was not being offensive or gratuitous. 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:19.439 Actually, Jesus loved and cared for women in a time when they were often mistreated. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:23.199 Do you remember back in chapter 5 when he met that outcast woman? 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:27.759 He healed her, cleansed her, and called her his daughter. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:37.199 So these are not unkind words, for the Lord Jesus never uttered any unkind words. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:43.279 They're not careless words, like the words that slip out of our mouths so very often. 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:48.079 Actually, this is right at the heart of what God is saying to us today. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:50.079 He would have us know this. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:58.480 You are not entitled, but by God's grace you can be included. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.680 And that is the big thing that God has for us in his word today. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:03.120 He would have us know this. 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:11.600 You are not entitled, but by God's grace you can be included. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:21.680 Entitlement, it's the sense within us that I have a right to this thing. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:22.720 I deserve it. 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:24.639 Of course, it is mine. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:33.279 And here we are talking about being in the family of God, being at the table of God, being embraced as a child of God. 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:41.600 And through this scripture, God would have us destroy any sense of entitlement that is left in our hearts. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:47.360 And he wants to leave us all thinking, I am a dog. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:49.120 Why? 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:53.519 That we would know that there is only one way into the family of God. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:59.120 Here is the only way to find a seat at the banquet of God, and it is a way of grace. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:05.199 It is inclusion by grace, it is never by entitlement or merit. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:16.959 Now, if we are a Christian man or woman, a Christian boy or girl, we should never tire of the grace of God, and we do need to be alert to seeds of entitlement that grow up in our hearts. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:20.959 We need to kill them with the help of the word and the spirit. 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:32.159 Others of us are just looking into the things of Christ, you know you're not yet a Christian, and my prayer is that you would hear Jesus' voice here too. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:41.440 Perhaps, yes, be shocked by him as we understand these words, and you rightly hear him say to you, you are a dog. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.840 And we're going to understand what that actually means. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.440 But also be loved by him. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.679 Come to him and be loved by him, because there is bread for you. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:55.200 There is a seat at the table for you, so come to him. 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:04.080 So this lady, uh, in her interaction with Jesus, it's hugely significant. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:09.200 Uh those words uh they seem so jarring, don't they? 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.519 What Jesus says to her, verse 27, then verse 28, what she says to him. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:15.120 Have a look again, verse 28. 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:20.720 Yes, Lord, yeah, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.600 They're actually a model response to Jesus. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:32.399 Um I am a dog, Jesus, but there is food for me to eat. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:41.440 So this lady, in her interaction with Jesus, she helps us understand all three of these passages that are before us this morning. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.159 They belong together, this trio of passages. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:51.440 So a girl with an unclean spirit, a deaf mute man who is healed, the 4,000 who are healed. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:57.039 These are not three separate stories, these are not three random stories from the life of Jesus. 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.000 The Lord made these things happen in a particular way, in a particular place. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:03.759 We're going to see that in a moment. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:12.080 He caused Mark, the gospel writer, to write about it, to record it in a particular way, to teach us this one big point. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:16.720 You are not entitled, but by God's grace you can be included. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:19.600 And this lady, she is the key to it all. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:38.240 If you've been with us all the way through these first chapters of Mark's gospel, you'll know that we have already been told about Jesus cleaning people with unclean spirits, sick people being healed, hungry people being miraculously fed. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:45.120 Now, it could be that the Lord simply is repeating it all over again. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.000 Um, but why would he do that? 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.440 Particularly, we might think the miraculous feeling, feeding. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:56.639 We saw the feeding of the 5,000 back in chapter 6. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:01.120 Now, here in chapter 8, why feed 4,000 people? 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:06.080 What is the special thing that the Lord wants to show us? 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:09.759 Or the clues that are built into this passage, they are to show us this. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:15.440 You are not entitled, but by God's grace you can be included. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:18.960 So, heading number one. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.480 Everyone is an outsider. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.639 Everyone is an outsider. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:42.799 So we come to this uh this passage, this uh series of events, and everyone that uh Jesus and his disciples uh engage with here, they are outsiders. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:48.240 In ethnic terms, they are Gentiles, they are not Jews. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.879 So, verse 24, the start of our reading. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:54.720 Uh Tyre and Sidon, that's where we are. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:12:02.799 Uh the Jewish uh historian Josephus, he said of Tyre, they are notoriously our bitterest enemies. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:07.440 The great temple in Sidon, it was to the pagan god Eshmon. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:14.080 This woman in verse 26, she is a Gentile from Syrian Phoenicia. 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:20.159 She was, in the parlance of the day, she was a dog. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:26.000 Then in the next story, we meet this uh deaf mute man. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.039 Uh we're now verse 31 in the region of the decapolis. 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:37.440 Jesus has been there uh once before in the gospel, back in chapter 5, with the pig farmers. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:38.240 Do you remember them? 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:53.360 These unclean people, outsiders, dogs, uh, this man that the man that Jesus heals, the crowd around him that are up in praise and astonishment, they were outsiders. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:01.440 So too, that great crowd, the 4,000 that Jesus feeds, we're in the same place, we're in the same region. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.679 Jesus doesn't leave and go elsewhere until the end of the story. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:14.320 Remember, we've got now got a great crowd, 4,000, who you could say were dogs. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:32.399 So all of these different people, that their spiritual state, to use the language of the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2, verse 12, they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, they were strangers to the covenants of promise, they had no hope, and they had no God in the world. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:34.159 Outsiders. 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.840 But here is the thing: it was not their ethnicity that cut them off from God. 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:46.240 Here we need to sort of step back into the Old Testament for a moment. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:59.919 The Old Testament law, the law of Moses, in it, God gave us categories of clean, unclean, insider, outsider, chosen nation, other nations. 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:05.360 Now, those divisions and those exclusions, they come from the law of God. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.039 They're included in what is often called the ceremonial law. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.519 They were given by God only for a time. 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:31.840 They had an inbuilt expiry date, and they were meant as a teaching tool, a temporary one, to show how critical it was to be clean before God, and how hard it was to stay clean before a holy God, and to show most of all the way of being made clean through the Savior. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 And so then the Savior comes. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:45.440 And in the previous chapter, do you remember in Mark uh Mark chapter seven, where the Lord Jesus was talking to, well, people who thought they were insiders, Jews. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:53.679 But he was speaking to a bunch of people who were deeply entitled, who felt proud, and they were self-deceived. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:15:02.240 And he talked with them about what really makes a person clean and what really makes a person dirty before God. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.200 And he says a couple of incredibly significant things. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:08.000 I want to just show you them before we come back to our passage. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:11.759 Have a look, chapter 7 and verse uh 19. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:17.120 At the end of the verse, look at the bits that the Bible translators have put in brackets. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:19.519 Thus he declares all food unclean. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.679 Now that shouldn't really be in brackets. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:28.799 You might think that's a rather it's a rather strange comment that just Jesus that Mark makes uh in passing. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:34.720 But Jesus was doing much more than putting bacon sandwiches back on the menu. 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:45.840 He was actually saying that those those external divisions, those temporary divisions between Jew and Gentile, they are ended. 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:52.399 But Jesus does not say that the difference between clean and unclean is ended. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:54.559 God is still holy. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:16:01.279 It is critical that before a holy God we become clean. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:04.960 Look at chapter 7 and verse 23. 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:12.799 All of these evil things, and he's talking about all of those things he's just listed in the previous verse. 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:22.639 Yeah, evil thoughts, sexual immorality, uh, theft, murder, adultery, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:28.639 The things that we know are part of our lived experience. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:33.279 Verse 23 All these evil things come from within. 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:41.120 They come from our hearts, and they defile, that is, they make us unclean. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:48.799 So there is a deep dirtiness of soul which you cannot erase, which I cannot erase. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:59.840 So if our heart is like this and Jesus says it is, then we find ourselves unclean and outside and excluded from God. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:15.759 So then Jesus leaves those people behind, people who thought they were on the inside, he goes to these outsiders, these people who could be thought of as dogs. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:20.480 But here is the thing. 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:31.200 If we all have hearts like that, then wherever we are, whatever we think of ourselves, then we are all dogs. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:42.720 We are all excluded, we are outside, outside of the family, not at the table, until and unless Jesus brings us in. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:58.000 Remember, no entitlements, no entitlements, no right to come in until Jesus brings you in. 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:01.680 And that is the precious thing that Jesus holds out to us here. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:03.359 And this is our second heading. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.319 Jesus offers his blessings to outsiders. 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:13.119 Jesus offers his blessings to outsiders. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:22.400 So these three stories before us here, they are not just an exorcism, a healing, and hungry tummies being filled. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:28.559 What this passage says to us here, what it shows to us, here is Jesus offering bread from heaven. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.960 Here is Jesus offering himself. 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:43.200 Here is Jesus coming with all of his blessings as the Messiah, yet offering them to outsiders, to those who are far, far away. 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:45.440 So let's have a look at that. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:46.960 Take the first miracle. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:56.960 This woman, she comes to Jesus, and in verse 26, she begs Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:02.640 We've met people uh in this condition before in Mark's gospel. 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:08.480 So, in an extraordinary way, uh, Satan has controlled her. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:14.559 So obviously, this lady wants this demon cast out of her. 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:16.160 But what does Jesus do? 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:19.200 He starts talking straight away about bread. 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:23.519 It seems like a complete non sequitur. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:25.279 Who's interested in bread, Jesus? 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:28.880 This woman, she wants her daughter healed. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:40.480 So Jesus comes to her, this outsider whose daughter is deeply in the grip of evil, and it is about bread that Jesus wants to speak. 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:51.519 Now he could have just healed her daughter and moved on, but he engages her in this conversation about bread and who should be fed and who deserves to be fed. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:57.279 And he says to her, the children, that is, the Jews, they are to be fed first. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:02.240 And by the way, here is the story of the whole Bible, in a sense, in one sentence. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.680 Salvation was first for the Jews and then for the Gentiles. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:09.440 So verse 27, let the children be fed first. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:16.480 Literally, let them be satisfied, let them be filled up. 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:27.920 So the Messiah, uh, this one promised by the Lord to feed and lead his people, to shepherd them, provide for them, for their bodies and for their souls. 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.640 That's what Jesus is really talking about here. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.920 In fact, this whole passage that's what Jesus is talking about. 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:37.839 There is a true bread which Jesus offers. 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:41.839 Now, this is bread that we all want, this is bread that we need. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.759 Some of us this morning will be aching for that bread. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:49.839 And then we go on to this second miracle. 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:54.079 Uh, this man who cannot hear and who cannot speak. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:57.599 And it's a strange healing, isn't it, that Jesus does. 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:01.920 You know, chapter 7, verse 33, 34. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:07.039 Uh he puts his fingers in his ears, he spits, he touches his tongue. 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:12.400 I think it's actually just Jesus' kindness to him. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:17.279 This is sign language for a man who cannot hear. 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:21.920 And wondrously his ears and his tongue are healed. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:30.079 But actually, the focus is on the crowd around him who brought this guy to Jesus, and they won't shut up about what Jesus has done. 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:33.599 They are joyfully astonished. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:38.079 And what they say in verse 37 is amazing. 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:44.319 Now, if we if we know our Old Testaments and do we know who these people are, it is amazing. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:47.440 They spoke better than they knew. 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:55.279 What they say in verse 37, he has done all things well, he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:02.960 Somehow or other, they are quoting from the prophet Isaiah, the Jewish prophet Isaiah, chapter 35. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:05.359 The Messiah will come, he will shepherd Israel. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.039 And how do we know when he's come? 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:10.640 Well, he'll heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:16.319 They make this amazing statement of faith, but they make this amazing statement of faith. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:21.119 These outsiders, these dogs, Jesus does all things well. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.319 He's come to us of all people. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:27.599 And of course, they were right, weren't they? 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:37.359 You know, the blessings of the Messiah, you know, this true feeding and leading and shepherding is for anyone who comes to him. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:42.400 And then we come to the passage's actual feeding miracle. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:47.519 You know, Jesus has compassion on this great crowd, 4,000 people, they've been with him for three days. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.039 These are hungry people. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:54.400 But notice they sense how much they need to be with Jesus. 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:56.559 With Jesus for days. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.799 They want to receive from him, they want to be fed by him in every sense. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:02.000 They have needs. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:04.319 He takes the loaves and the fish and he feeds them. 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:12.160 And we read in verse 7, verse 8, uh, they ate and were satisfied. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:17.759 Just like back in chapter 6, the Jewish crowd was fed and satisfied. 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:23.839 Just what Jesus was talking about with the woman in verse 27, let the children be satisfied. 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.720 They ate and they were satisfied. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.920 And this is far more than just a large and filling dinner. 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:35.599 This is a picture of salvation, but it's a picture of salvation for outsiders. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:39.279 This great Gentile crowd, a crowd of dogs. 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:48.000 The Messiah has come to cleanse and to welcome and bring into his family and to bring satisfaction and joy. 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:51.279 That's what Jesus brings, isn't it? 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:55.839 Psalm 23 says, You have prepared a table for me. 00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:03.039 Jesus' table, he has to give himself to bring people to his table, doesn't he? 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.359 Yeah, we're in we're in Easter week. 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:18.799 Um the Lord Jesus offered himself in his dying and his rising to clean up those filthy hearts, to give to us forgiveness, to save us from the power of sin. 00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:23.680 It took him to the cross that this bread could be available. 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:30.240 And so it is a gift of grace, it is a free gift given in infinite kindness. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:37.920 You are not entitled, but by God's grace you can be included, and it is wonderful. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:48.000 So, what we're invited to do as we look at this scripture, we're invited to copy this Gentile woman in her humility, and that's our third heading. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:52.160 Copy the humility of this Gentile woman. 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:55.680 She is a glorious example of saving faith. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:25:04.480 So here is someone whose ears were unstopped by the Spirit, whose mouth was released, actually, such that she could make this good confession. 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.000 Verse 28. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:16.079 Yes, Lord, you know, yes, Lord, I am a dog, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:18.480 So she knew, didn't she? 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:25.119 I am not entitled, but by God's grace, Jesus, I can be included. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:31.519 So Jesus comes to her and he says to her, those very shocking words. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:35.039 You know, I'm not gonna throw the children's bread to the dogs. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:40.079 And notice how the woman responds and how she doesn't respond. 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:46.640 Some people find it very hard, don't they, when Jesus speaks to them about what they're like. 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:49.279 Maybe you've uh experienced that. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:58.559 You've been reading the Bible, you've got to Mark chapter 7, and you've read what Jesus says about the state of the human heart, and not just the human heart, but your heart. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:01.519 And you actually find that a very bitter and a very hard thing to say. 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:02.319 Is that really true? 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:04.480 Am I not a better person than that? 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:13.519 Well, this woman here, she didn't get on a high horse, she didn't try and stand on her rights or defend herself. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:17.279 She knew that she was an outsider. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:21.759 Uh, she was a non-Jew in the end of the old covenant era. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:24.559 She had no birthright in the kingdom of God. 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:30.960 Yet when Jesus gives that little hint to her, as he does, you know, feed the children first. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:33.359 Of course, there's going to be food for other people. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:37.519 She's just happy to be a dog under the table eating the scraps. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:50.240 And Jesus was not trying to humiliate her in this conversation, he was to trying to draw out of her this response of faith, both for her sake, but actually for ours too. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:55.039 She shows us so beautifully that humility is the way to find bread from heaven. 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:58.400 Um, humility, it is the way to Christ. 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:05.759 Um, if you find it offensive, uh, the thought that you are a dog, um, can I warn you? 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:09.279 Actually, you are in a spiritually very, very dangerous place. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:25.519 Um, do we imagine that the holy God of the universe, who made us and against whom we have offended, that somehow we are entitled to the blessings that Jesus brings, or that we are naturally or easily brought into the family of God. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:35.519 You know, the Savior had to die the first Good Friday to give a righteousness whereby people like us we can come close to God. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:47.519 So this woman, this pagan woman from Cyrophoenicia, uh, she is one of the Bible's loveliest examples of coming to Jesus with just empty hands. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.279 In just a moment, we're going to sing these words in our final hymn. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:54.960 We're going to sing, uh, nothing in my hand I bring. 00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:58.319 Uh, simply to thy cross I cling. 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:03.839 Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:07.680 Foul I to the fountain fly. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.599 Wash me, Saviour, or I die. 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:14.960 And that is the confession of a Christian. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:20.640 Um from day one of the Christian life all the way through to our deathbed. 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.279 Um, I don't deserve to be fed. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:29.759 Uh, there is no obligation on the Lord to feed me and shepherd me and care for me and lead me. 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:35.519 But the grace of God in Christ, it is so very, very great. 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:42.720 And it's because of that grace that even people like you and me that we find a place at our father's table. 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:45.440 Let's bow our heads. 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:46.880 Um, I'm gonna pray. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:03.200 Heavenly Father We thank you for the kindness with which you have loved us. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:16.720 Please would you save us from our sins and the deceitfulness of our sins that makes us believe Satan's lies about our hearts? 00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:22.799 Would you convict us of our true natures? 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:29.839 Would you quickly lead us uh humbly uh to your Son, um the Lord Jesus? 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:33.599 We thank you that there is more grace in him than sin in us. 00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:44.000 And we do ask that no one would want to walk away from the Lord Jesus because of the attractions of sin or the world or the devil. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:50.559 So do this word in us, we pray for our eternal good and for our joy in Jesus. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:51.839 In whose name we pray. 00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:52.880 Amen.