Introduction: Welcome to Expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible. Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational.
Skip Heitzig: Well, again, I want to welcome you to our communion service. I want to also welcome, can you believe it, our web audience; even out here we have people who are watching from their homes or from different parts of the world because I get their e-mails. So, just great to see you all. I see you all way down there; great to see you. Are you alive down there? Can you hear? Great. And there's some brave people in the sun right now. How are you guys doing? Sun's going down, so it's going to feel better and better as we go.
This reminds me like going on a tour to Israel, because we're outside and all of our teachings are around the Sea of Galilee or in Jerusalem or at archaeological digs, and we open the Scriptures to where those things happened on that spot. And I guess the only different between this and a tour of Israel is, well, this isn't Israel, and that is.
And we usually have a couple hundred people on a tour, there's a few thousand here tonight.
So, nonetheless, we've been in the Gospel of Mark on our Wednesday night Bible study, and I want to just finish out a couple of remarks on this chapter before we take the Lord's Supper together. One of the stupidest things anyone could ever do is to claim his or her own goodness and to try to get to heaven by saying, "Well, I tried really hard, and I think because I'm a good person I believe that I'm going to make it to heaven." That's a dumb, lame, bad thing to think.
Let me make it really simple for everyone. There's two types of religions in the world, actually, only two religions. You could take every single belief, every single religion and put them into one of two categories: there's the category of human achievement, and there's the category of divine accomplishment. Human achievement is probably every religious system. They give you works to do, activities to do, and when you do them, you're going to make it and God's going to receive you—that's human achievement.
But the one the Bible speaks of is the approach of divine accomplishment. It's not your work; it's his finished work once for all times. You don't earn it; it's a gift. You receive it. One says, "I do it," the other says, "God has done it." If you remember from your studies in the Bible that Jesus was out in the wilderness being tempted of the devil for forty days, and while he was there Satan came to him and tried the discourage him, tempt him away from going to the cross: "If you'll just bow down and worship me here, I'll give you what you've come for. I'll give you the world, for it's mine and I can give it to whomsoever I please."
You remember the story? What he was basically saying to Jesus is, "You don't have to go the way of the cross. It's difficult. It's hard. It's painful. I've got a better way for you. If you just give me a momentary pleasure by worshiping me, I'll give you what you've come for. You don't have to go the way of the cross."
The reason Jesus said, "Get behind me Satan. Go away, be gone," is because there was no other way except going to the cross. Jesus came here knowing that his main purpose was sacrificial, horrifying death. He knew that was the only way. He lived with that inside of himself. He was on a divine timetable. The Bible says in Revelation that he is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth."
But while he was here moving his way toward the cross in that three and a half year ministry, there were some people that he wanted to get a hold of along the way. You might say "special appointments" that he had already planned to meet up with. And we read one of these here in the gospel of Mark in chapter 7, beginning in verse 24. It's a woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Now, interestingly the only time that we have a record of Jesus ever leaving the state of Israel, the area that the rest of world calls Palestine, we know in the Bible as the covenant land of the Israel. The only time that Jesus ever left that is in this story. Why do you think he left Israel? Why did he do it? Why didn't he just stay around Galilee or Jerusalem? Why did he go outside of his borders?
Well, what does John 3:16 say? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." And, so, he wanted to demonstrate even in capsule form that he didn't just come for the covenant people, the Jewish people, he came for the world, non-Jews, Gentiles, people that the Jewish people would call pagan.
And, so, "From there," verse 24, "He arose and he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and he wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, and she came and she fell at his feet." The city of Tyre—spelled T-Y-R-E, not T-I-R-E; it's not a tire on your car, it's the city of Tyrós, ancient Tyre—is thirty-five miles from Galilee.
Jesus didn't take a bus, not a car with air-condition, not a motorcycle, he walked with his disciples in weather like this, thirty-five miles. Sidon was sixty miles from Galilee. It was an ancient area of Phoenicia. It was a Gentile region. And the woman in the story called a Syro-Phoenician woman, that Gentile was a descendant of the Canaanite race.
Now, remember the land of Canaan was the land that the Lord took the inhabitants out of and gave to the children of Israel when they left Egypt. When Joshua came in to conquer the land, there were some survivors, Canaanites survivors and she was a descendant of one of them. They lived and she was the offspring of a Canaanite descendant. The Jewish people looked upon the Canaanite race, any of these leftovers like this, as the scum of the earth. They had a name for them—dogs. Pretty stiff name, right? Dogs, Gentile dogs.
But notice the story as it goes on. The woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and she came and fell at his feet. Now, in Matthew's Gospel when Matthew tells the story, Matthew informs us that this woman recognized Jesus and used the Jewish name for him, the covenant name, the messianic title. She said, "Son of David, have mercy on my daughter for she is severely demon-possessed." It's interesting; she's a Gentile using the covenant name, the Jewish name, the Old Testament biblical name recognizing who this was. "You are the Son of David. You are under the covenant."
It says, "The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth and she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her"—now this is puzzling. This would probably be ranked one of most offensive things Jesus Christ ever said. "Jesus said to her, 'Let the little children be filled first, for it's not good to take to children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.' "Wow!"And she answered and said to him, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs.' Then he said to her, 'For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.' And when she had come up to the house, she found the demon gone, and her daughter lying on the bed."
Now, to understand the passage, you have to understand two things: context and language. Context, first of all; the context of this little analogy is the dinner table the supper table. It's when you sit around with your family at the dinner table and you're bringing just those that you love and just those that you know, your children, your wife, those relatives of yours that you love around your private dinner table. That's the context of the analogy.
Second, is the language that is used. In the Greek language used at that time there were two different words for dog. One was the Greek word kuón, kuón; the other word was kunarion. The first word kuón were the kind of dogs that roam the streets. You know, the mongrels, the scavengers, they eat garbage, they attack people, they're very unsafe. The other word, kunarion, means your pet, Fido, your little puppy at home. The kind that hangs around the dinner table just looking for scraps.
The Jewish people two thousand years ago would often refer to the Syro-Phoenician area, culture, people group, as kuón: dog, scavenger, mongrel, unfit for the kingdom. And that's probably because of some of their writings in the Old Testament that excluded certain races because they were marked for extinction by the way they had treated Israel in the Old Testament. So the Jewish people had been taught culturally to scold these Gentiles.
But the word that Jesus used was the word kunarion, the little puppies around your table. And so when he said, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the kunarion," the little puppy dogs, Fido, in my case it would be Mac, my little Welsh terrier. She responded by saying, "'Yes, Lord, yet even the little"—puppies, the Fidos, the Macs,—"under the table eat from the children's crumbs.' And then he said, 'For thing saying go your way; the demon is gone out of your daughter.' "
What Jesus is doing with this statement by, "It's not right to take to children's bread and throw it to the dogs," was to draw out the kind of faith that we see displayed in this passage. What she is saying is, "I realize I'm not under the covenant. I realize I'm not one of the children around the dinner table. I'm not part of the covenant people, the people of Israel. I realize that. All I want are the scraps. I'm not fit to have the choice morsels, but I would just like the scraps. Now, I know that there is a covenant with the nation of Israel, and I know these are the people that God blesses, but I'm simply asking you for extra blessing. I'm asking you to go beyond the borders and just toss me out a scrap."
Now, the reason Jesus remarked, "Wow, that's quite a bit of faith, and for this saying, go your way." It's because her faith was informed. She knew who he was—the Son of David, the Messiah. She knew who the children of Israel were and what their place was in the ancient covenant, and she knew what her place was. But she also knew the mercy of God, that God so loved the world. And she was dealing with a merciful God who would be willing to extend, just like he extended his journeys outside of Israel, he would extend his mercy to other peoples. So, it was an informed faith, it was a persistent faith, and it was a humble faith. "I just want the scraps, Lord, and I'll be happy."
"When she had gone to her house, she found the Demon gone out of her daughter lying on the bed. And departing"—now we'll finish the chapter and we'll take the Lord's Supper. "And departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, he came through the region of Decapolis, the Sea of Galilee. And they brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him."
A note about Decapolis: Decapolis is a word that means ten cities. Deka—ten; polis—cities. They were ten Greek cities occupied by the Romans around the area of Syria, east of the Jordan River principally, and one of them found in Israel itself. You might say it was Rome away from Rome. For the Roman population, the soldiers, the governors, it was a taste of Roman culture in a faraway land. So Jesus went from one Gentile area to another one.
"And they took him aside,"—or—"he [Jesus] took the deaf man aside from the multitude, and put his fingers in his ears, and spat and touched his tongue." I'm just watching your reaction, because your reaction should go, "Oh, gross! Why would he do that?" Well, because the man is—what? Deaf. He can't hear; but he could feel. And for Jesus to put his fingers in his ears, he could feel his touch. He was dealing with the ear problem, the auditory problem.
And because also speech is tied to the ability to hear, you articulate sounds, depending on what you can hear, he then touched his tongue. He spat and touched his tongue. This would be an encouragement to this man. I know, to us it sounds gross. It's, like—"Get out of my space." But to somebody who was deaf, dealing with somebody some said was the Messiah, who's going to come out and touch you, was an encouragement and would bolster his faith.
"Then he, looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed, and said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that's Aramaic for 'Be opened.' Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. Then he commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, 'He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.' "
"He does all things well." It's one of my favorite little passages. This is what people said when they saw Jesus. "Well, how do you describe him?" "Well, everything he does, he does really good, he does well." Now, this would remind us of the creation of the Father in the book of Genesis. After God would make something, he'd remark on it, and he would say it is—what? "It is good."
He'd make the heavens and the earth—"It is good." He'd make this—"It's good." He would remark, and every time he would make something he said, "This is good." So, the Son in redemption is like what the Father does in creation. He does all things well, like the Father who does everything well, who does everything good, so Jesus in redemption does all things well.
Here's the thought I want to leave you with before we take these elements together and close out the night in worship. Both people in this story were outsiders: the Syro-Phoenician woman, and the man the Decapolis; outsiders that Jesus was looking for to bring into his fold. It's as if he had an appointment with them.
It reminds me of John, chapter 4, the woman in Samaria at the well. It said, "Jesus needed to go through Samaria." And if you have a map in front of you and you've ever read that passage, that "Jesus needed to go through Samaria," it doesn't make sense, because to go through Samaria is a roundabout way to get to where he was going, not a direct route.
So, if somebody would stop and go, "Where you going?" "Well, I want to go there, and I need to go through Samaria." They'd say, "No, you don't. Samaria is dangerous, it's hilly, and it's out of the way." But what the Scripture means is there was a woman there that he needed to meet and save; thus he needed to go through Samaria.
Same with these two. All of us are outsiders. None of us have any right to go to heaven. None of us have any standing on our own before God. But just like this woman, just like this man, outsiders, Jesus came looking for us to bring us into the covenant as well.
I meet people who say that they're looking for God. "I'm on a search," they say. Someday I believe I'll find God. But I'm looking and I have been looking, and I've been reading, and I've been going on pilgrimages, and I've been praying certain prayers and trying different religions because I'm searching for God.
The truth is, God is searching for you. And by the way, God isn't lost. You don't need to look for him, it's not, like: "I'm searching for God." "Well, where is he? Behind that rock? Is he on that monastery up there? Is he hiding away somewhere?" We're the ones lost, we're the ones that need to be found, and he's looking for you. And he wants to give you satisfaction. He wants to give you fulfillment. He wants to bring peace, fire in your belly, you might say, purpose in your life.
I don't know what you've tried. I don't know what you're trying right now to be fulfilled. You might be trying to be fulfilled in your education or your career or a relationship, but trying to be satisfied by drinking from any other well or trying any other experience, well, it's sort of like eating Chinese food. I love to eat Chinese food. The only problem with it, as much as you eat, no matter how much you eat, you're still hungry an hour later, at least I am. And whatever you're trying, you're going to be hungry again, you're going to be thirsty again.
So, the good news is today, tonight your search can be over. You can be "found" in this place. You can leave tonight a different person than the one that walked in. Your sins can be forgiven. Jesus healed many people, but he came principally to save many people. Is your heart filled? Are you satisfied? Or do you have to go back and try more things and more things and to it longer and heavier doses, medicate yourself to get that buzz again?
Let's all bow our heads. The communion board is going to get ready to pass out the elements, but this is a time of soul searching. As we quiet our hearts in this place, as we just think about these little stories that we just heard about a woman and about a man outside of the covenant, ones that Jesus seemed to be on the lookout for, went out of his way to find to give them a blessing. One woman just wanted the scraps. But what that meant to her is that she would be included in that beautiful covenant embrace of God's grace. And for that man it was unexpected. I'm sure he woke up not knowing he would go home that night completely different, being able to speak, being able to hear.
We're about to take bread and juice that are reminiscent of the Lord's Supper, the Passover meal that he shared with his disciples, this very meal that our Lord said to take and do this often, and do it in remembrances of him. We consider it a sacred time, a holy time, a holy memory. By taking these elements, we are making the statement that we're saved people that we believe that no amount of good works or sincerity or keeping religious rules, none of that is enough to get us into heaven.
But that by taking to bread and the juice, it speaks of his broken body and his shed blood. And we're saying, "It's by your work, Lord, and it's by your done, completed, finished work. Not by any work, not by earning, not by anything I could do." As the great hymn writer once said, "Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling."
But it could be that not everyone who's gathered here believes that. Maybe you're right on the edge. You're right at the cusp. You're right at the border. You've heard, you've come to church, but you've never personally placed your trust in Jesus Christ where you've said to him, "Lord, we need to make a transaction here. I need to give you all my crud, all my sin, all my junk, all my past, and I need you to forgive me, and I receive your perfect righteousness, the finished work of Jesus on the cross for my sin."
God will make that exchange. He'll take away your sin, and he'll give you the perfect righteousness of his Son Jesus if you let him. He will not force himself. Every person on earth, if they choose to die without Christ, if they choose to go to hell, he will let them. He will honor and respect the choices that you make. But he would, through me, urge you to take his deal, his forgiveness, his covenant. He wants to include you in his family, bring you around his table.
If you've been a good person, a religious person, but you've never been a saved person, you're not certain tonight that if you were to die you'd be in heaven; or if you've taken some steps away from the Lord, you've wandered, you've backslidden, you haven't been experiencing God's presence because you've been living for a while in your own self-will, and you need to come back to him tonight into that covenant, he will receive you as well.
So, with our heads bowed, our eyes closed, if you are willing to receive Jesus Christ as your payment for your sin, your Savior, your Lord—if you're willing to receive him and that forgiveness for the first time or to come back to him, I want to pray for you. But I need to know who I'm praying for, so I'd like you, if you desire that, to raise your hand in the air. Just keep it up for a minute. I'll acknowledge your hand and I'll pray for you, and I'll lead you in a prayer, and we'll take the Lord's Supper together, but you raise your hand.
God bless you girls right up front. God bless you and you to my right. I see a couple of your hands. In the middle on my right. Toward the back, I see your hand. Right there in the middle, yes, ma'am. To my left, couple of you right over here. I see your hands over here. I see your hand toward the back.
Father, we thank you and I pray for those who have lifted up their hands around this amphitheater tonight on this warm evening. Lord, I pray for each life. You know them; you know the things they have been dealing with, the things they fear, the obstacles they face, the difficulties they're enduring. You know their hopes, their dreams; you know their shortcomings, their failures, their sin. And you are willing to forgive and to give new life.
Those of you who raised your hands, I would just simply like you to pray right now, right where you are. It'd be better if you just say it out loud boldly. If you want to say it in your heart, you can, but say these words, say something like this to the Lord right now:
Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner, I admit that, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe that Jesus died on a cross and that he rose from the dead for me. And, so, Lord, I turn from my sin, I turn from my past, and I now turn to you as my Savior. I want to follow you as my Lord, and I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.
The Lord just did an awesome work in lots of lives.