Begging Boldly

Mark 7:24-37

We can come to Jesus begging boldly

Transcript

Mark 7 starting in verse 24. And from there he arose and went away to the
region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know,
yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an
unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman
was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon
out of her daughter. 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. But she
answered him, yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's
crumbs. And he said to her, for this statement you may go your way, the demon
has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and
the demon gone. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon
to the Sea of Galilee in 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 touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. 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. The word of God. Let's take a moment to
pray. Father, what a gift it is for us to be able to gather in corporate worship
and to be able to gather under your word. We ask for your help and your guidance
in this time, both in faithfulness to the message that you have for us here. So
Lord, I pray that the proclamation and the explanation would be faithful and
accurate. And I pray that as hearers we would listen well. So help us by your
spirit in both these things. In Jesus' name, amen. So I ran into Sean McDermott
a couple weeks ago. I was at a Sabres game on my way to my seat and in the
tunnel about two feet away from me, there was Sean McDermott, the Bills coach.
And of course, I wanted to say something, something funny or clever or something
better than go Bills. But it all, you've probably had these moments before, it
all happened in a split second and I missed my opportunity. I didn't say
anything. And you've probably had this experience before with someone that you
would like to talk to, but they seem unapproachable. So maybe they're famous or
powerful or handsome or beautiful and you want to talk to them, but they're
intimidating somehow and you don't know how to approach them. You might even in
those scenarios sometimes rehearse in your mind what you're going to say or
later you think about what you should have said, but in the end you do nothing.
And some of us, we may have a similar struggle with the way that we approach
God. Some of us can be paralyzed with fear and trepidation because we know who
we are, we know our weaknesses and failures and we know the greatness and
majesty of God. So how can we approach him? Or some of us could be much more
casual. We think of God as someone that we can kind of leave on hold or on call
waiting and he'll just pick up whenever we feel the need to call upon him. But
of course neither of those approaches are correct. What we see in the passage
that we just read is that we can come to Jesus begging boldly and we can come
not based on our merits or rights, but on his compassion and mercy. So this
morning in the passage that we just read there are two very personal and
memorable encounters with Jesus. Both people desperately need help, both are
accounts of people begging and in both cases people beg boldly and find the
compassion and power of Jesus. We're just going to look at both the passages 24
through 30 and then 31 through 37. Let's start with the Syrophoenician woman in
verse 24. From there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon and
he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.
But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him
and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a
Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her
daughter and he said to her, let the children be fed first for it's not right to
take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, yes
Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said
to her, for this statement you may go your way. The demon has left your
daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
So in the previous 23 verses in Mark, in Mark 7, Jesus has been talking to the
Pharisees, talking about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. And they are focused
on man-made tradition and they have an external focus on what they deem to be
unclean. So we read a lot about tradition and the washing of cups and kettles
and couches and Jesus tells them that true holiness comes not from that type of
cleanliness but from the heart. Then as we continue into our passage today, then
we start to realize Mark is actually brilliantly organizing his material because
the teaching on uncleanness is immediately followed by Jesus going out into a
Gentile area. He goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon which would have been
considered a place of uncleanness and there he encounters a woman who would be
considered very unclean. So 24 and 25 say, from there he arose and went away to
the region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered the house, didn't want anyone to
know, yet he could not be hidden. And if you're reading Mark, we've already seen
multiple times where Jesus is trying to withdraw from the crowds and get some
rest. Getting away from these surging numbers of people that are continually
surrounding him and those attempts have not been successful because the crowds
are following him wherever he goes. The news about Jesus is spreading so now
Jesus goes away from Galilee toward the Mediterranean Sea into Gentile area
towards Tyre and Sidon to get some rest. And immediately someone finds him.
Immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and
came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by
birth. So she's Greek speaking, a Gentile and a woman. Matthew has a parallel
account of the story and says the woman was a Canaanite, which in other words an
ancient enemy of the Jews. So all that means is there are big social and
cultural barriers between Jesus and this woman. It means she does not have any
rights or credentials, not appropriate for her to be approaching a Jewish Rabbi.
But she comes anyway. The woman was a Gentile, Syrophoenician by birth and she
begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. The idea of beg is that it's
continual and ongoing. It's aggressive and it's persistent. Probably on some
level even annoying. Matthew's Gospel says the disciples asked Jesus to send her
away. But you know who does not care about social conventions or politeness or
hierarchies or the way things are usually done? Parents, especially maybe more
specifically mothers when their children are in distress. This is probably
something that most of us know from experience. That a mother will move heaven
and earth on behalf of their child if they are sick or in distress and will not
care what anyone thinks what the social protocol is. How many of you have a
memory of your mom like this? Screaming at a bully or cutting in line at the
emergency room or diving fully clothed into the pool because she was willing to
do whatever it took in that moment for her child. So this Syrophoenician woman
is not the right person to be approaching Jesus socially or culturally but she's
doing it boldly and she's begging and she's not doing it because she thinks that
she merits something. She's doing it for two reasons. One is the obvious her
daughter is in distress and needs help. She's possessed by an unclean spirit.
There's nothing that she has been able to do for her so far. And then second she
believes in Jesus's power and compassion to heal her daughter. So it's a bold
and uninvited approach. So let's look at how Jesus responds. His response seems
kind of off-putting to this desperate woman. He says He said to her verse 27 let
the children be fed first for it's not right to take the children's bread and
throw it to the dogs. And we read that and think what a strange thing to say.
It's a parable in bite-sized form. So let me explain the metaphors that Jesus is
using. First Jesus pointing out the obvious the woman's not Jewish. She's not an
Israelite. So the children in this parabolic statement are the Israelites. They
have a privileged place in God's plan of redemption. Back in Exodus God says to
Moses Israel is my firstborn son. If we look at the New Testament even
reflecting back the Apostle Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. And this is a whole nother topic but there's a multitude of reasons
why in God's redemptive plan the Israelites had this place of priority. And why
Jesus is coming ultimately demonstrated that he was the fulfillment of God's
promises. So in Jesus we see he fulfilled the law of Moses. He became the true
temple for the people of God. He's the prophet the priest and the king that the
Old Testament anticipates. So Israel at that time had this place of priority
when Jesus is risen before he ascends when he speaks to his disciples, he tells
them go into all nations and the gospel quickly spreads from Jerusalem. But at
this point. In Mark what Jesus is saying to the Syrophoenician woman in this
parable form is there's an order there's a progression here and you're not an
Israelite. That's what you're not Jewish. That's what it means when he says let
the children be fed first. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw
it to the dogs. Well when we read that that statement seems even more than off-
putting it seems actually offensive and maybe a little bit even racial. But the
word dogs is not it's not the way dogs is somewhere something it's not referring
to like the scavenger dogs that could have prowled around the country. It's not
referring to dogs the way Paul sometimes does later on the New Testament, but
it's referring to the household pets or puppies that people might have in the
house. So again, it's reiterating. There's a progression here. You would not
feed your puppies first before you feed your family. And again, it seems like
Jesus is just putting this woman off with this puzzling statement and it
wouldn't be surprising if she just slunk away discouraged since Jesus's answer
doesn't seem encouraging to her at all. What's fascinating is that instead of
retreating the woman responds boldly to him and stays within the framework of
the parable. So in Mark Jesus keeps teaching in parables and the disciples need
him to interpret those. They don't get it. They don't really know what he's
actually talking about until he explains it to them. They're still hard-hearted
in some ways when Jesus teaches parables. This Gentile woman gets it. She's the
first person in the Gospel of Mark to understand a parable without needing help
and she responds inside the framework of the parable and says yes Lord, yet even
the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. If the woman was American,
she would have said, She would have said, who's he to say that I'm not worthy or
as good as anyone else. I deserve to get my request answered. See we can
reproach God with pride thinking he's at our beck and call and we deserve him to
give us good things and why wouldn't we merit an audience with God? Or
alternatively we could get so lost in our inferiority and lack of self-worth
that we never come at all. And think who are we to pray to the God of the
universe and think that he cares about the things going on in my life. Doesn't
God have more important things to do than answer my prayers? But look at this
woman. She agrees with Jesus. She says, I know. I'm a Gentile. I haven't been
keeping the law. I'm not going to temple. I'm not asking because of my religious
performance or my credentials. And yet still she begs assertively and boldly and
it's all based on her confidence in who it is that she believes she's talking
to. She doesn't believe she has any rights. But she does believe that Jesus has
all power and mercy. So she comes begging boldly. In the 16th century, during
the English Reformation, there's a man named Thomas Cranmer who put together the
Book of Common Prayer or who put much of it together. And Cranmer reflected on
this story of the Syrophoenician woman and wrote a prayer for the church helping
people prepare to take the Lord's Supper. He said this, we do not presume to
come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but
in your manifold and great mercies, we are not worthy so much as to gather up
the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord whose property is always
to have mercy. It's not our merit that allows us to approach God. It never is.
If we think that we can come to God in prayer and expect an answer because of
our goodness or because we kept our temper because we remembered to read our
Bibles. Then we have it all wrong. But alternatively, if we think that we cannot
come to God because we have lost our tempers and because we haven't cracked open
our Bibles this week, that is also pride in a different form. We're saying that
God's grace is not able to overcome our sin and our failure. When we come to
God, we come begging boldly based on his merit alone. And we also see something
about the nature of true faith from this woman. There's no hedging. There's no
double-mindedness. There's no plan B. It's wholehearted. Hebrews says without
faith, it's impossible to please God for whoever would draw near to God must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. When you pray,
ask yourself, do you believe anything is going to happen? Because true faith is
wholehearted. So now let's look at our second story where Jesus heals the dead,
the deaf man, and we'll see how these two episodes are connected. Verse 31. Then
he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee
in the region of the Teutopolis 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 touched his tongue and looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,
ephphatha, that is be opened and his ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke
plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. The more he charged them, the
more zealously they proclaimed it and they were astonished beyond all measure
saying he has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute
speak. So again, Jesus is in a Gentile region. He's in the region of the
Teutopolis. So he leaves the region of Tyre and Sidon and if you looked at this
on a map that's out by the Mediterranean Sea. Now he's going east across Galilee
into the region of the Teutopolis. This is close to where Jesus was back in Mark
5 when we read about him healing the maniac. So it seems like the word of Jesus
has spread to this place and we read that they brought to Jesus a deaf man who
had a speech impediment. They is unspecified here. It's probably the man, it's
got to be the man's friends or family. The man cannot hear and he cannot speak
intelligibly, but he has people who care about him. These people bringing the
man are begging on his behalf. He's probably been a spectacle most of his life.
He's doubly helpless. He can't hear and can't speak. We can guess how often
people have stared at him or mocked him or been surprised when he tried to
communicate. But the ones who are bringing him, the ones with the deaf man who
care about him already know what Jesus did for the maniac. That man back in
chapter 5 was demon possessed. He was living in a graveyard. So the craziest
most disturbed person in their area has been restored. And if you recall how
that account ends that man wanted to follow Jesus wherever he went and Jesus
didn't permit him. Instead Jesus said go home to your friends and tell them how
much the Lord has done for you and how he's had mercy on you and he went away
and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and
everyone marveled. Now lo and behold Jesus is back in this region in the
Decapolis and these friends have heard about Jesus and we know they must have
been anticipating this day. They have this man who they love whoever in mocks
and ignores and they are not going to miss their chance. There's that word
again. They're begging on this man's behalf. Look at verse 32. They brought to
him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and they begged him to lay
his hand on him. One of the things that's most interesting about this passage as
well as the preceding one is that in both accounts the bold begging is taking
place on behalf of another. It tells us something about the ministry of
intercession and how powerful that is. The girl with the unclean spirit and the
deaf man with the speech impediment. They didn't make the move towards Jesus
themselves. The ones who love them did that for them. And you think about this.
You may have someone in your life. You probably do who is too depressed too
anxious too discouraged to really pray for themselves. That could be us
sometimes. There are times when we all need someone to beg boldly on our behalf.
And there are other people in your life that you may think they're perfectly
capable. They should be they should be seeking God. They should be praying. They
should be coming to God. That's just not what they're doing. Well, how many
people? How many people reflect back on their conversion and realize I wasn't I
wasn't seeking God at all. In fact. I was actively running away from him. But
they realize I had family members. I had friends who love me and quietly and
faithfully were begging God for my salvation. Begging boldly on behalf of
another person is a powerful ministry. So Jesus takes the deaf man away
privately away from the crowds and this very interesting healing takes place. We
read about the elements of the healing and we can wonder what to make of it.
It's a it's a very earthy and physical healing that's going on the man cannot
hear or speak. So Jesus is using nonverbal signals to tell him what he's about
to do for him. He puts his fingers on his ears to let the man know that he is
about to hear he spits and touches the man's tongue. To signify that the man's
tongue is about to be loosed and he looks up into heaven. Represents prayer as
Jesus is gazing up independence on his father. And the text says that Jesus
side. Another word for that is he moaned. In that sigh or in that moan we see.
Full recognition of all the agony that this man's experienced over the years.
Jesus knows and identifies with the pain of those physical difficulties. He
could also be sighing from the hard-heartedness of some of the people that
surround him. But Jesus the perfect son of God coming to live with us in a world
cursed by sin and in a world that doesn't recognize him in many ways just
doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Here he is and yes, he is coming to
restore all things. But that does not make him any less aware or compassionate
of what life is like in a broken world. A lot of times people in like what gets
called helping professions. So I mean doctors or nurses or teachers or pastors
or social workers. They're actually some of the most cynical and unfeeling
people because there's so much they encounter so much dysfunction that they
become hardened. And that's not how Jesus is he is not hardened. He comes you
see him moaning sighing in this place coming with compassion and power to save
this man who's been broken. And the man's described as deaf and having a speech
impediment in the in the Greek translation. It's a word that's only used one
other time and it's in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old
Testament. And Mark is so what we see from that is Mark is deliberately linking
back to a prophecy in Isaiah 35, which says this say to those Isaiah 35 4
through 6 say to those who have an anxious heart be strong and fear not behold
your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God he will come and
save you then the eyes the blind shall be opened 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 for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
When the eyes of the blind are opened and the ears of the deaf are being
restored Mark is saying something very deliberate God has come to Earth in the
person of Jesus Christ to rescue and to save. Look at some of the keywords in
this in this healing Jesus looks up to heaven in prayer. He sighs he's not
hardened or cynical to the reality of sin. He touches the man he's not the man's
condition doesn't make him awkward or uncomfortable. And then he speaks the word
it's ultimately what still what brings deliverance Mark gives us the Aramaic
word he reports exactly what Jesus said ephphatha be opened. And his ears were
opened in his tongue was released and he spoke plainly. And of course the man
and those who brought him they would have been overjoyed. Jesus charges them to
tell no one but that gets completely disregarded and they tell everyone he
charged them the more he charged them the more zealously they proclaimed it. And
Mark finishes his account by speaking of the astonishment of the watching crowd.
They say he's done all things. Well, he makes even the deaf here in the mute
speak. So when we read these accounts and we see how Mark is connected them.
He's telling us something about how we can approach God. We can come to God
begging boldly and we come to God not based on our rights our merits or our
performance. We come based on the merits of Christ alone. We come up because of
what Jesus has done for us. We come because of his power and compassion. Hebrews
puts it to us like this to us as believers like this. Hebrews 4 14 through 16
says this since then we have a great high priest who is passed through the
heavens Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not
have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who
in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with
confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. So as we wrap up before the before musicians come
up and lead us. I want to give us a couple minutes to respond quietly in prayer
and I think there's two there's two types of people in the room hearing this.
You may realize I need to be begging boldly on behalf of someone else. There is
someone that you are burdened to pray for. This would be that time to do. You
may also realize as you think about the state of your own heart. I'm not right
with God. Come not because you're going to fix yourself but come because of
his mercy because of what Christ has done for you come begging boldly in that
place. So whether you are begging on behalf of someone else or whether you are
praying to God for yourself. I'm going to give a couple minutes for people to
respond quietly in prayer and then I'll pray to wrap us up in the worship team
will come.