Christ Does All Things Well

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. 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, Ephathah, 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.

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. You can be seated. Just to remind you of what's happening in Mark chapter 7 at this point, Jesus has been ministering primarily in Galilee.

He has left Galilee, where he went up to this region of Tyre, and he healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. We studied that in verses 24 to verse 30.

And what we see here at the end of Mark 7 is Jesus doing and Jesus living out as the Messiah what Israel failed to do. Israel was called by the Lord to be his chosen people, and they were to be the light to which the message of salvation went to all of the world.

They failed to do that. Jesus is now taking the gospel beyond the borders of Israel. And he comes in this text here in verses 31 to 37 once again to an area that is largely a Gentile area, and we're going to see him display his tenderness and his compassion and his power.

And as we walk through this short encounter in his life, we'll do so with three headings this morning. First, make note of the desperate request.

The desperate request. Go back to verse 31. He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis.

So, what's happening here is Jesus has left Galilee, and he's going to go up to Tyre, and he's going to go about 20 miles up to the north to Sidon, and then he's going to come back around to the Decapolis.

A large group from our church just got back a couple of Sundays ago from Israel, and one of the places we visited was part of the Decapolis. So, what we're reading here in Mark 7, for those who went to Israel with us, we were just in part of this region.

And I want to put a map up here so you can see, because there's a little bit of detail here that Mark gives us that's important. So, where it says number one there in Galilee is where he was ministering.

He goes up to Tyre. You see that where it's Mark number two. Now, he's going to go from Tyre to the Decapolis. The Decapolis is there at the bottom right.

See the number four there. The Decapolis is that region there on the east of the Jordan River, just east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. If Jesus were wanting to go from Tyre, and his next encounter was going to be in the Decapolis, he could have taken a much easier path.

I just want you to notice, though, that he purposefully is going from Tyre 20 miles up, about 22 miles up to Sidon, and then this much longer trek back down here to the Decapolis.

And there's all kinds of conjecture when you read historians and scholars of why did he take this path. Well, he's wanting to take the gospel beyond the borders of Israel.

And I think one of the best ways to understand this is just what one man called, it gives him time to just have a walking seminar with his apostles. It's in total about a 120-mile journey he takes the apostles on.

And during that time, he's able to talk to them and able to walk them through things that they need to know and things that they need to understand. And so, when you see there the Decapolis, it's a group of ten cities, one of which we were just in two weeks ago with a group from our church.

You can kind of get a visual of how he is going around that way. Thank you for putting that up. You can take that down. I appreciate it. Just want to be able to kind of see the route that he's taking. So, he comes to, verse 31 says, the Decapolis.

Now, what is that? Well, Decapolis is a word that means ten cities. Deca, meaning ten. Polis, meaning cities. Ten cities.

The Decapolis was a group of ten cities. They were Greek cities, originally built and strengthened by Alexander the Great a couple of centuries before Jesus' day.

But at this point in time in the first century, they are occupied by Rome, right around the area of Syria. Again, our group who just went to Israel, we went right to the border of Syria.

You can look right out over it and see right there where it was. That's right where this is taking place. These cities were the Decapolis, built by Alexander the Great, were at this point in the first century in Jesus' time, Roman cities, Roman authority, and it was Rome away from Rome.

That's where Jesus is going. So, he's going to go from a Gentile region of Tyre, where he encounters the Syrophoenician woman, to another area now that is largely a Gentile area known as the Decapolis.

Now, it's important to understand that the gospel is going beyond the borders. We're getting a snapshot here of what's going to happen to the church after the ascension of Christ as the gospel goes to all the nations.

And it says in verse 32 that they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Now, just stop for a minute because I want you to understand in Matthew 15, Matthew describes this day.

He doesn't give us the detail that Mark does, but listen to this added layer that Matthew tells us in chapter 15, verse 30. He says, So, on this day, there are a lot of people, they've heard Jesus in town, they've heard the stories of what he's done.

This isn't the first time Jesus has been in this area. Back a couple of chapters ago, when he healed the man with all the demons, it was the same area. So, word has clearly gotten out of who Jesus is and what he can do.

And so, people are bringing all kinds of friends and family members, those who are sick, those who can't see, those who can't hear, those who can't speak, those who can't walk, and they're just dropping them there at the feet of Jesus.

And Jesus, on this day, is healing many people. But Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wants to draw your attention to one specific man.

Matthew just tells us there is a lot of people being healed. But Mark dials in on this one specific man.

And the man in verse 32 was deaf and he had a speech impediment, the verse says.

Mogilalos is the word. Now, I mention that because it's the only time in the New Testament that particular word is found.

There's something significant happening here in verse 32. He had mogilalos.

He had mogi, difficulty, lalos, speaking. He had difficulty speaking is what the word means. Now, it's significant because in the first century, if somebody could not hear or if somebody had a severe speech impediment, several things were going on.

One is people would oftentimes assume that it may be the result of sin, some kind of divine punishment. Or people may assume it was some kind of demonic possession.

All kinds of hard things that would be put upon people that had this kind of malady. And it's the only time that we find this word in the New Testament.

But, in what's known as the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Old Testament's written in Hebrew, a couple of centuries before the birth of Christ.

The Hebrew Old Testament's translated into Greek. It's known as the Septuagint. And in the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, we find one time where this same word, Mark 7, 32, mogilalos, is used.

It's used one time in the Old Testament in Isaiah 35, verse 6, which speaks of the Messiah. Now just make note of that in your mind for a minute.

We'll come back and see why that's so important in just a moment. But here's the desperate request at the end of verse 32. They begged Him to lay His hand on Him.

They begged Him. They are imploring Him to lay His hand on their friend. Now, there's some disagreement with scholars over whether the friends wanted Jesus just to bless their friend or whether they really thought that Jesus could heal their friend.

The text doesn't tell us. It just tells us that people were bringing all of the sick to Jesus, putting them at His feet. He was healing them and these friends brought their friend to Him and asked Jesus to lay His hand on Him.

They are begging Him to help their friend. The word beg here is a strong word. It's not just asking. They're begging. They are making this desperate request, this desperate plea for Jesus to heal this man.

And we see, secondly, in verses 33 to 35, from Jesus a compassionate response. A compassionate response. Verse 33, and taking Him aside from the crowd privately.

Let's just stop there for a minute. I think this has a lot to help us to inform how we view ministry. Remember in Matthew 15, it tells us there's all kinds of people, big crowd.

They're bringing all kinds of people, just literally laying the sick at His feet. It would be a situation where it would be hard to move and everybody's trying to get first and everybody's trying to get next and everybody wants to make sure they're not left out.

People would be pushing in and crowding in all around Jesus. It would be quite a noisy, chaotic scene. And yet, Mark takes time to tell us that Jesus takes Him aside from the crowd privately.

That in the midst of the crowd, Jesus takes time to care for the one.

I think that's instructive for us of how we're to live our life as Christ followers. In a church, in a ministry, in a family, there's needs all around us.

And we have to care about the needs of everybody, but there's also times where you've got to just deal with the individual. We have to remind ourselves that as a church, we're not just a collection of hundreds and hundreds of people.

we are individuals that are part of one family. In your home, the Lord may have given you two or three or four children, and you've got to make decisions that are best for the whole family, but there's still times where there's one in your household that is hurting and struggling, and you make special time for the one.

we can't lose sight of that, that individuals matter, people matter.

And I say that because it's possible to sit in a room with hundreds of people and to feel lost or to feel overlooked or to feel insignificant.

I just want you to know that as best we can as a church, we want to emulate the example of Jesus and not only care for the crowds, but care for the one. And if there's a need that you have today, if there's a way that we can help you, we want to know that.

Let us know how we can pray for you. Let us know how we can partner with you in following Christ to strengthen you any way that we can.

There's just something incredibly tender here about, if you can just picture in your mind the scene of the chaos, everybody sees Jesus and they have this thought that if Jesus is here, our friend, our family member can be healed, but once Jesus is gone, it's over, and so no one is letting somebody go first.

Everybody's pushing, everybody's crowding, everybody wants their chance to be with Jesus here. In the midst of all of that, he finds this one man, he pulls him away, pulls him aside from the crowd and he gives him his undivided attention here.

Such a compassionate response from Jesus. Jesus. In verse 33, taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears.

Remember that this man is deaf and he can't speak. And so, Jesus really has no way to be able to communicate with him. And so, all that he's doing here is he's helping the man, he's alerting the man of what he's about to do.

It's essentially a made-up sign language, just letting this man know he's going to touch his ears. He's letting him know, I know your problem, I know your condition, I know your struggle, I'm about to deal with your struggle.

So, he just, he puts his fingers in his ears to let him know, I know your situation. If Jesus were to speak to him, the man wouldn't be able to hear. And so, he touches his ears so he can tell the one, I know who you are, I know what you're going through, and I'm about to deal with your struggle.

Verse 33, put his fingers into his ears and after spitting he touched his tongue. This sounds kind of strange to our ears, doesn't it?

What's the spitting about? Jesus spitting? That's odd. Well, a couple of things. One, understand that the culture of the first century is quite different than our culture.

This isn't a strange thing to them. There's no one in that day that sees that and would be alarmed. We do know that there are a couple of times where Jesus did a miracle that involved saliva.

Here, Mark 8, 23, John 9, verse 6. Now, there was this belief in the first century that there were people who could do miracles and part of the superstition was that people who did miracles would use their spit or saliva that had some kind of healing power in it.

Some scholars will throw out the idea that not that his spit had healing power in the sense he needed it, but that by spitting it, it would make the man think that he was about to be healed because it would kind of fit in with the assumption or superstition of the day.

I don't know. The text doesn't give us that kind of information. It just tells us what he did. But there is something just deeply personal here.

Just incredibly human. He spits and he grabs the man's tongue. The same word used, by the way, in the Gospels where the lady grabs Jesus' robe because she's sick.

Same word. He puts his hands in his ears to say, I know about the condition of your ears. And he touches the man's tongue to say, I know about the condition of your tongue.

He's letting him know that in the midst of a crowd with all kinds of sick people all around him, he knows this man specifically his condition. And he says, I'm going to touch and I'm going to heal your ears.

And I'm going to touch and I'm going to heal your tongue. The wording to us sounds a little odd, but I just think there's something very personal, very human, very compassionate.

I couldn't help all week reading this, but think about how many times I assume you had the same condition growing up as a child. You've got food on your face and what does your mom do?

I never once said that to my kid, that's a mom thing. I also never had anyone do that to me except my mom. It's just a very personal thing.

There's just something very human, very relational about what the Lord is doing. I'm going to heal your ears and I'm going to heal your tongue.

The man couldn't hear him if he explained it to him. So he touches him so he can know what's about to happen. Verse 34, And looking up to heaven, he sighed this is similar to what he did in chapter 6 before he blesses the bread there with the 5,000 men and the women and the children on the hillside there.

He looks up to heaven and it says he sighed. I think it's a very interesting detail that Mark gives us.

And just imagine what's happening. Again, from Matthew 15, we know this isn't the only person in front of him that is hurting.

He is having all the townspeople that are sick or lame or blind all being brought to him. He is surrounded all around him with brokenness and with pain and with family and friends who are begging and pleading and entreating with the Lord to please notice and please touch our loved one.

And as Jesus sees the crowd and pulls the one aside, as he touches the man's ears and his tongue, he sighs.

I think this is the sigh of Jesus that shows the depth of the brokenness of this world and knowing the beauty and the glory of what will one day be restored.

I think this is the sigh of just seeing all the hurt and knowing that as he's about to heal this man, so one day all of creation will be restored as Romans 8 tells us.

It's also interesting if you do a little bit of digging, we see this same word for sigh used in Romans 8, 26.

Paul uses the noun form of this same root word to describe how the Spirit of God intercedes with us with sighs too deep for words.

This is the sigh of the Godhead seeing and knowing the brokenness of humanity and knowing that one day all things will be made right.

verse 34 and he said to him Ephatha this is Aramaic that means be opened.

In Jesus' day they would have spoke Hebrew there in worship. It would have been common to speak Greek as you were buying or selling or trading or doing commerce but the house language the familial language the home language was Aramaic.

We saw that when Jesus healed Jairus' daughter Talitha kum which is to say little lamb arise Jesus would speak Aramaic. Now Mark translates it he says Jesus said Ephatha that is be open because Mark is writing to predominantly a Gentile audience who would not be likely to know what Aramaic means.

And so Mark translates it that what Jesus said means be opened. The miracle happens in verse 35 his ears were opened and his tongue was released and he spoke plainly.

I love the wording that scripture gives us here. His tongue was released. The word that means released or loosed here is a word that means to be in chains.

That the bonds the shackles of his tongue were released. He could now speak he could hear and notice in verse 35 he spoke plainly.

This is the miracle here. He couldn't hear now he could hear. He couldn't speak now he could speak. And he didn't just speak a little bit. He didn't speak that was hard to understand.

speak in such a way that was difficult for someone else to comprehend. He spoke plainly. In fact, the word here is orthos. He spoke orthos. In English orthos we get orthodox which is right doctrine.

We get orthodontics straight teeth. He spoke orthos. He spoke straight. He spoke right.

He spoke as it strains out of here plainly. You take your teenager into the orthodontist because their teeth are growing every which direction.

You put braces on them. And in my case, about 15 years later, those teeth are straight. They're in order.

Orthos. The man who could not hear could now hear. The man who could not speak could now speak. He didn't just kind of barely speak. He was completely thoroughly all the way healed.

He spoke plainly. We saw the desperate request from the friends begging Jesus to lay his hand on him. We saw the compassionate response of Jesus in taking the man aside and healing him.

And thirdly, verse 36 and 37, let's look at the determined reply. The determined reply. Verse 36. Jesus charged them to tell no one.

Now, again, we read this and this seems strange to our ears, doesn't it? Why don't we want to tell someone? Well, this isn't the first time that Jesus said this. Chapter 1, chapter 5, he has told them don't tell anyone.

Happens now again. And remember that as Jesus walks around, there are so many people who are bringing their sick to him, and he healed so many people, but remember ultimately, Jesus is not here to be a healer of bodies, ultimately he's here to be the savior of our souls.

And so he's having to try to cool down the messianic fervor in the sense of he wants to make sure that people don't lose his message while they're searching for his miracles.

He doesn't want to be known just as this miracle man. The miracles have a purpose, and the purpose of the miracle is to validate and substantiate that he is who he says he is.

But what Jesus knows is that people are so slow to grasp is he can heal this man, and it's a beautiful, amazing, wonderful thing but this man who can now hear and can now speak still is going to have to have his sin dealt with.

And if this man does not believe in the promises of God as revealed in Christ, this man who is now able to hear and speak would die and face judgment.

And so what Jesus knows that the people are so slow to grasp is that the physical miracles, while compassionate and a blessing, are a means to an end.

They're not the end itself. The end is for people to understand the message of who Christ is. And so Jesus says, don't tell anyone.

It seems Jesus had planned to stay in this region of the Decapolis and do more ministry, and he doesn't want everyone coming to him simply for a miracle. He wants them to hear his message.

how do they respond? Verse 36, the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

This would be a very hard thing for them, for sure. Jesus wants the message of salvation to be what drives people, not the desire for healing.

But they couldn't stay silent. They couldn't quit talking about what Jesus had done. It's what we call in theology the messianic secret where Jesus would tell people to not say what has happened.

You see that all over the gospels. And every time I read that, I'm just always struck with the paradox of often people in scripture who were told to be quiet, kept running their mouths, while we who are called to speak the gospel often stay so silent.

the more zealously they proclaimed it. It's the word caruso. It's a strong New Testament word here for proclaiming, for preaching.

Verse 37, and they were astonished beyond measure. In the original, this is a double emphatic.

This is what's known as a double superlative. It means they were over the top amazed. They were astonished, astonished. They were amazingly astonished.

They were incredibly astonished. That's the idea behind the language here. They were astonished beyond measure. They were astonished, then they were astonished again. It's a double superlative.

It's trying to help you to understand these people weren't just amazed. They were really, incredibly, astonishingly over the top amazed. And they kept saying, He has done all things well.

That's their testimony. That's their caruso. That's their proclamation. He has done all things well. well. I kept thinking all week in my mind that this just kept taking me back to Genesis.

When you read the creation account, and behold, it was good. And again, behold, it was good. And again, behold, it was good.

And then, behold, it was very good. He does all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Think about Ecclesiastes 3.11. It says, He has made all things beautiful in its time. for this man, his life was hard.

In fact, his life would have been miserable. But now, by the touch of the Lord, it's a beautiful scene.

It's a personal, compassionate, tender, gracious moment. the Lord has once again made all things beautiful in its time.

And there will come a day, Christian, where all things will be made right. All things will be beautiful.

I mentioned a few moments ago that Mark uses a word, mogilalas, that's found only here in the New Testament, only one time in the Old Testament. Let me take you to it.

Open your Old Testament, if you would, to Isaiah 35. If you just open your Bible pretty much to the middle, you're going to be really close. Isaiah 35.

I want to show you this. This is incredibly interesting. little background of Isaiah 35.

What's been going on in the preceding chapters is that judgment's being pronounced upon the people of God. There's going to be judgment, there's going to be exile, the days are going to be dark.

But Isaiah 35 reminds the people of God it won't always be that way. There is hope and there is promise.

In the near fulfillment, the hope and the promise is the people of God are going to be taken off into exile, are going to be brought back home. But this is a picture of an even greater fulfillment that will take place in the kingdom.

Isaiah 35 verse 5, Then the eyes of 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.

There it is. Mogilalas. Used only once in the Old Testament, used only once in the New Testament, used of the work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

There's no doubt in my mind, this is a purposeful connection, that Jesus is showing He is the fulfillment of every promise and prophecy of the Savior and the Redeemer who is to come.

When you read Isaiah 35, we read about the future millennial kingdom. What we're seeing in Mark 7 is a snapshot of what that day will be like when everything is made right.

the people in Mark 7, when they witnessed all that Jesus had done, here was their testimony. He does all things well.

As J.C. Ryle once said, we shall never see the full beauty of these words until that resurrection morning. but one day, everything will be made right.

I did something last night I don't think I've ever done. The only time I ever get on Twitter is to follow like during an OU football game.

I'll get on there and see what the guys that report on OU are doing to follow some injury or for some sporting event. I'll follow that just to see if there's some behind the scenes stuff.

That's the only time I've ever seen it or been on it. Last time was the first time I've ever gotten on the news feed of Twitter to just like read and scroll what all is out there in the world.

I told Marcy last night, I did it for 15 minutes. It was the worst 15 minutes of my life. I can't chapter and verse this and I'm not claiming this to be gospel truth.

I'm just telling you, I'm getting to be an old man today, so just listen to me. If you're doing that every day, you really should stop. I'm not saying because it's sinful, it's just depressing.

Somebody puts a Bible verse on there and the next 15 response are people arguing with me and complaining about it. Somebody says, hey, my grandchild's beautiful. Someone says, no, they're not, they're ugly.

It's whatever. I mean, just whatever you said, somebody had a reason to fight about it. I read for 15 minutes and I was convinced the world is imploding by midnight. I'm amazed we woke up today.

it was this 15 minute time period of being thrown into the deep end of all the sludge of humanity and just seeing with my eyes, with people's typed out words, just how broken this world is.

I told Marcia, it's no wonder everybody walks around depressed. If you read that, Mr. Rogers would be depressed.

I mean, I don't know how you can read that and submerse your life into that and have any smile at all. I'm not saying it's a sin to do it. I'm just saying I don't think it's real smart.

But what it did show me was just how broken this world is.

Thoroughly broken. And one day, all things will be orthos.

They'll be straight. They'll be plain. One day, this world will all be made right.

And I thought last night, not so much about all the just ridiculous banter back and forth that I read on it, but of people who have real problems and some of those people are here today and you look at your health and you're frightened and you go home to your house that's empty and you're lonely and you think back to loved ones that you've lost, that you miss.

I've got a family member who just lost her dad and she said the hardest part of it is she wakes up every day and it's a fresh remembrance that her dad's gone.

Some of you can relate to that and sometimes the world's just so broken but one day all things will be made right.

Creation itself, Romans 8, will be restored and sin will be no more and it will be the people of God with no more sin and no more death and no more shame and no more sorrow as all things are made new again.

So Christian, hold on. Jesus knows you, the individual, he knows your need and he cares.

and one day what you see in part through a mirror dimly you will see in whole and you'll see plainly and you will say as Mark 7 declares to your Savior, you do all things well.

I can't answer the question of why certain things happen or why certain people go through certain kinds of struggle and whatever your specific pain is today.

I can't say anything to make that pain go away. I can't say anything to help make sense of that which seems confusing. What I can say is today you see in part but one day you will see plainly in your testimony when you see all things for how they are, when all things are restored and all things are made right, you will say to your Savior you do all things well.

And until that day you trust and you pray and you cling to Christ and you proclaim the truth that Jesus is the only answer for this broken world and for broken people.

And today if you don't know Him as your Savior He is the answer for you. It will not make everything in your life be easy.

In fact it may make your life harder. Saying yes to Christ will not make you get everything you want. In fact it may cost you everything you have.

But if today you know that you're a sinner and you feel the weight of what that means I want you to understand that Jesus is a Savior and His grace is freely given to those who would call upon His name and be saved.

And if you today in your heart would admit your sin and cry out to the Lord to save you your testimony of your salvation will be just this the Lord has done all things well.

Let that be the song that we sing this day and every day until that day when all things are made right.

Our Lord and our Savior we thank you today for your word. I pray that your Holy Spirit would come and help what I have said to be clear and to make sense.

If anything I have said is confusing let it just be quickly forgotten because my words are of no value unless they are explaining how your words can be rightly understood.

I pray that for our congregation today. We thank you for the songs we've sung today about the cross and about your salvation. We thank you for the believers baptism we've witnessed and we pray that what we have studied here this morning would be an encouragement to us all throughout this day.

We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Come back tonight at five o'clock we're going to have a great time of worship and study in Ephesians six. I'd love for you to come here and be a part of that from five to six.

Love you dearly church family. God bless you. You're dismissed. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.