In our study of the gospel of Mark, we'll be in Mark 7. This is our 35th lesson on this wonderful little gospel. Call it little, it's 16 chapters, small compared to the others in some ways, but so packed full of such good truth and a lot of action and things happening. So it's been a great journey through Mark, and I thank you all for staying with it. And I know I'm learning so much. I pray that's the case with you as well. Before we begin, let's open in prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for your word. We thank you that it does, it does indeed give us the answers we need for life's greatest issues. And today, Lord, as we look at the compassion of Christ, we see it so vividly portrayed. I just pray that we'd find comfort in that, Lord, for our own trials and our own sufferings that we go through. And Lord, we thank you so much for your love for us, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so Mark 7, we'll finish, Lord willing, chapter 7 today, that final passage, verses 31 to 37, and we're calling this the sigh of the Savior, the sigh of the Savior. And what we're going to see in this passage in vivid detail is the compassion of Christ. And we've been watching this happen throughout Mark already, We've seen Christ befriend the tax collectors, the outcasts, the sinners, those that were socially viewed as outcasts. He reached out to them. We see him truly leaving the 99 to chase after the one. And even little children, who are excellent judges of character at times, aren't they? They know who that is, someone that's child-friendly, usually, right? But they also know those that are not child-friendly, and they tend to avoid them. But Jesus was such a gentle soul, such a gentle person, that even children recognize this. And so we're going to look at how Jesus was so accessible to people, he made himself this way. He made himself accessible, and the way he did this was that he, I really believe, and I think the scripture shows us, he understood life from others' perspectives. He chose to look at the suffering of other people from their point of view. and to even live in the suffering with them for a time. Even if he was about to end that suffering, he chose to identify with it, to empathize. He could empathize like no other. He connected with people in a way that spoke to the heart. And He's still doing that today. I say that as a past tense because we're gonna read about something that happened in the past. But He's still doing it today. He's still empathizing with our sorrows and our hurts and bringing comfort and peace in a real tangible way. That is our Savior. That is Christ. He's not some distant, disconnected God. He's very much connected to our daily lives. where the issues happen and where are the make sure this is okay okay can you guys hear me okay all right thank you and so we're gonna see this empathetic compassion expressed in the heart of Jesus so our outline four points to see that come the compassionate Savior the commanded silence and and then finish with this commendation, this commending statement. So, Roman numeral one, if you're following along or if you're taking notes, Roman numeral one, a compelling need, and we see this right away at the beginning. the passage starting in Mark chapter 7 verse number 31 Mark 7 31 Which states again? departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon he came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee so we saw last week he was in the regions of Tyre and Sidon where he met the Syrophoenician mother and who came to him on behalf of her daughter who was demon-possessed. So he's in a pretty much Gentile only or very high percentage Gentile region. He's left his normal area around Sea of Galilee and Capernaum, where he did most of his ministry among the Jews, and now he's in the Gentile region. And so he's been up in Tyre and Sidon, and we'll go back to our map. You can see on the left there along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Tyre and then Sidon. And then the green line, I believe, is to represent the trip back to the south or back into closer to where the Jewish area was of Israel. This is kind of a circuitous route but it was pretty long. No less than 120 miles were traveled as Jesus made his way back through Caesarea Philippi and then down into the Decapolis. You remember the Decapolis, that region of 10 cities. Jesus has been there before and we'll talk about that as well this morning. And we talked about why did Jesus do this? He got up, He rose up, and if you remember, that word is with purpose. He had a specific purpose and reason for doing so. And He gets up and He leaves the Jewish area, and He goes into the Gentile area. And you remember, He's trying to remain hidden. He goes into a house, He didn't want anybody to know. Well, this one mother, of course, found Him, and we studied that last week. But now He leaves, and he doesn't go right back to Capernaum. In fact, he goes to another area that is probably still predominantly Gentile in population. And so the questions are often asked, well, why did Jesus do this? And it's a bit of speculation, but it's based on logic and reasoning, based on what we see. So we talked about the fact that he may have been going into this at first to go to Tyre and Sidon as a way to rest, as a way to get away from all the crowds and the pressures of that. And we see that. He wasn't there for a public ministry. He didn't want himself to be known. And so he is there. He could have also been trying to escape the growing opposition of the Pharisees. Remember, they tried to stone him at times, they tried to take him, and he would escape. And John tells us, because it was not yet his time to go to the cross. And of course, there's also some pressure and some interest. Herod Antipas, Herod on the throne there, has some interest in Jesus. And so he doesn't want to get caught up in all that political turmoil. He wants to stay clean of it. He has a mission. He has a focus, and he's going to stay on that. And so remember, his main mission, and he told this to the mother, was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But did Jesus also love Gentiles? Yes. Does he still love Gentiles? I'm so glad for that, speaking as a Gentile. So he still had, even though his mission was mainly the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the Jewish people, We also see him touching the lives of Gentiles. We saw that last week with the Syrophoenician mother and her daughter. And we're going to see that again in today's narrative. So verse 32, let's keep going. Then they brought him, now he's down in the Decapolis, which again, is on the eastern shoreline there of the Sea of Galilee, where that purple line comes down. I don't know how well you can see it up on the screen, but just to the east of that blue in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, that's where he is. And so the people of that region brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hands on him. Now, why would these mostly Gentile people bring this man to a Jewish rabbi from Nazareth? If you remember when he comes back into Capernaumets, where Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, comes to him and falls on his knees and asks for help with his daughter. And others in that region, he's really well known, but is the Jewish region the only place he was well known? And we know that's not true. In fact, Jesus has been to this region before in Mark. So back in Mark 5, 1 through 20, which we're not going to turn to today, If you want to jot that down, Mark 5, verses 1 through 20. We've already studied that. If you missed that lesson, they are recorded on the website, Facebook, YouTube, other places, sermonaudio.com. But we read there that Jesus met a man. And of course, the other gospels add another gentleman to the mix. So there was actually two guys there, and they were, if you remember, demon-possessed. Not just with one demon, but the man that he talks to here in this passage in Mark 5 had multiple, a horde, you will a horde of demons and this happened right in the same region where they're bringing Jesus this man and so Jesus has had some impact on the region already and if you remember that man that Jesus cast the demon out what did he want to do when as soon as he was freed and dressed in his right mind sitting at Jesus feet as his disciple what did that man beg Jesus to do Anybody remember? To follow Him? Yes, but literally to follow Him and go with Him, right? He wanted to be in His presence, and He begged him, take me back across the Sea of Galilee. I want to go and be with you. I want to learn from you and serve you. And what did Jesus tell him? Did He say, come on with me? No. What did He tell him to do? Yeah, go back home, go to your friends, go to the people that know you, and we read in the passage that that man went out and began to tell everybody he could what Jesus had done. Probably the first missionary in that region to share about Jesus of Nazareth. And so as we look at this, now they're bringing to Jesus, perhaps we're seeing some of the fruit of that man's ministry in the region, as he has been expressing what Jesus did to him. And so we read these phrases. Decapolis, of course, is a group of about 10 cities we read words like beyond Jordan we see that back in Mark 3 verse 8 another reason why they may have known of Jesus besides the man we just spoke about Jesus is in this case in Mark 3 he's back over near the Capernaum area where it's mainly Jews He was he had his fame had grown to this region. So Jerusalem I do me a beyond the Jordan and that's often synonymous with Decapolis It was that eastern shoreline of the Sea of Galilee in the eastern side of the River Jordan and so of course when we mentioned this verse last time though those from Tyre and Sidon and so this we're seeing Jesus fame go out and we're seeing the fruit from that as the message of Jesus is proclaimed touches lives and produces fruit. Isn't that still what's happening today? It's still happening right now. It's the same thing that we see today. And so Matthew 4.25 also talks about this region. Great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from where? Decapolis. Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan. So we see these groups of both mainly Jews, but also Gentiles, his fame extending there. And so as we return to our text now in Mark 7, we see that what the presenting problem was for this man. Then they brought him one who was deaf and had an appendament in his speech. So this man was deaf, easy to understand there, couldn't hear. He couldn't hear. I think of my grandmother, who for many years, her church had a ministry to the deaf, and she would sign. She would be off to the side as the preacher was preaching, and she would be signing with her hands to help them understand. Maybe you've seen this at other events, even secular events, where someone will be signing for those that are deaf. And so she had a special heart for those, and that was her ministry for many years. But Jesus has brought this man who was deaf. He had no hearing in his ears, and it says he was mute. He had an impediment in his speech. So either it was that he was completely mute, he could not speak, or I actually believe, based on the word impediment there, which means a bond, or a chain. It was perhaps that he could potentially make noises or utterances but not form words. It might have been that he was tongue-tied and sometimes newborns come out and they're born with that and that little fiber there between the bottom of the mouth and the bottom of the tongue has to be carefully snipped by that doctor, and there's just, I couldn't imagine trying to do that, but those guys have just steady hands, and so that is taken care of. There was a hand up over here. Good point. Good point. Barbara mentioned and pointed out those that cannot hear, cannot hear how they sound. And so especially if they were born that way. Now sometimes there's those that are born hearing and have accident or a physical issue and they become deaf later and they're still able to speak but for whatever reason this this impediment so this man had had no ability to hear and no ability to speak and maybe you've known those that that struggle with that or you've met those that have this this issue and notice lastly in the verse that they begged him they begged Jesus you know this is such a common word in Mark We have seen a lot of people begging Jesus in Mark. A few examples. Back in Mark 1, the leper begged Jesus to heal him. The demons in that man we spoke of begged Jesus to be sent into the herd of pigs. The healed demoniac, who we just mentioned, begged Jesus to go with him. Jairus begged Jesus to heal his daughter. The crowds begged Jesus to heal their sick. Oh, I forgot to mention the people in Decapolis. What did they beg Jesus to do when they saw that he had cast the demons into the swine? Yeah, they begged him to leave. Interesting how their mindset potentially here, if it's the same crowd, has changed. Interesting how the message of Jesus will change people's hearts. But the crowds begged Jesus to heal their sick. People, for the most part, had an understanding about Jesus. He was the only answer. That's why you beg someone. If it's just one of many options, you might ask, but you're not gonna beg. You're not gonna throw yourself down at their feet and beg for mercy as we saw the Syrophoenician woman do last week, as we saw Jairus do, as we saw all these other people do. They understood that Jesus of Nazareth was Nazareth, was the only answer to their problems. What a beautiful thing. What an awesome sight. And I was watching a video of a guy that does apologetic speeches in college campuses, and he gets students and he asks them questions, and he describes himself as a beggar that's found the living bread, telling other beggars where to find the bread. And I thought, what a great illustration, a word picture of what the Christian life is. We're all beggars, aren't we? Because we have nothing to offer. We have nothing to offer. When it comes to our salvation, and even our spiritual growth, we get to take a part in that, choosing to be faithful to the Word and prayer and the disciplines, but it's all about Jesus and what He does. So these beggars come to Him and they beg Him for this physical touch. Now Jesus does give it in a very special way, which we'll cover in a moment, but it's interesting, they're so specific, they begged Him to put His hand on him. They wanted the physical touch. They wanted to make sure that the healing took place. Now we saw last week, did Jesus have to touch the girl with the demon? Did he even have to be in the same region as her, the same city? No, he thought the thought and the demon was gone and she went home and found her daughter completely healed and resting on the bed. So Jesus does not have to physically touch, but sometimes it's beautiful that he chooses, he touched the leper, if you remember. He took Jairus' daughter by the hand. We see him doing this again here as we're gonna see. And so they want this healing touch. They beg for the touch of Jesus. And it just really was kind of convicting. Am I continuing to have the mindset of a beggar? Am I humble in my mind toward the Lord that I'm begging, begging Him for His touch in my life? We must remain beggars and have that humility. Well, let's move to our second part of the outline, second Roman numeral. compassionate Savior and we're gonna see here we get to the crux of the text verse 33 and 34 and Jesus took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers in his ears and spat and touched his tongue then looking up to heaven he sighed we're gonna focus on that in a moment he sighed and said to him Ephaptha, that is, be opened. So what can we notice from these verses? First of all, notice what he did with the man. What did he do with him first? Took him aside, away from the multitude, away from the crowd. This became very personal all of a sudden, very personal for both Jesus and this man. Remember that this man could not yet hear and Jesus knew that. So immediately he begins to communicate his love for him. He can't tell him that, but he can show him, and that's what he does. He takes him aside to show him the love of God, takes him aside in a personal way and says, you are loved. You are cared for. You are special to me. You're not just another face in the crowd. You are a unique individual, and I want to be with you. I want your attention on me, and I want my attention on you. You're not just one of many problems. I think if he would've just, I mean, Jesus could've thought, and everything would've been healed, right? Just like the demon. But he doesn't do that here. I mean, he could've thought, and the guy was good, and just keep going. That's not how Jesus works. He's personal, and we think about this idea that we are each individuals, and we're not just another problem for Jesus to handle. We're individually loved by Him. Takes me back to our testimonies of salvation. What's more personal than that in your life? If you put your faith and trust in Christ, you can look back in the moment you believed, Is there anything more personal than that moment? So our salvation, I believe, is illustrated here. And so when we come to believe in Jesus at that moment of our faith, it is an individual experience. It's not a community effort. It's not a group think issue. It is a... Sinner interacting with their Savior in a moment of time and putting their faith in Christ in a very one-on-one personal experience. Each individual must place their personal faith in Jesus for salvation. We're not saved by the traditions of our fathers handed down. We're not saved by corruptible things as gold and silver. We're saved by the precious blood of Christ, and it's a personal choice. So he takes him aside and notice he continues to communicate with him knowing that he cannot speak to him. He continues to use action throughout this whole text to communicate his love for this man. So next, some have called this potentially a type of sign language actually, a type of communication with him to tell him ahead of time, this is what I'm gonna do for you. It's that he put his fingers in his ears. He literally reached his hands out to the man's head and put his fingers in his ears. Could that have been part of the healing? The touch brought the healing, yes. And I'm not saying it wasn't part of the healing, but I believe that as we see the compassion of Jesus throughout this text, I believe that this action, after taking him aside and becoming very personal with him, and then touching those ears, was a way to communicate this is what I'm going to do for you. This is what I'm about to do. So he takes him aside, We have the sequence of events. He takes him aside, he puts his fingers in the man's ears, and then he does something rather unusual. Jesus holds his hand out in front of his own mouth and spits some saliva on his fingertips and reaches into the man's mouth and touches his tongue. Now, what if a doctor were to do that? I mean, I don't, I'm pretty sure that's not what this man was expecting when he met Jesus that day. Think of the personal touch there. And then he looks up to heaven. He could have, and we believe he was praying here, as he often did, he looked up to heaven before he broke the bread and fed the 5,000. So we see this as a pattern in Jesus' ministry. But he makes sure to look up to heaven. He could have prayed without looking up, correct? I mean, the Father and the Son are one. But he chooses to lift his chin and look up to heaven, knowing the man was watching him now. He had his attention, right? This guy just put his fingers in my mouth. He's got my attention. And he looks up, and then he sighs and commands that the ears and tongue begin functioning normally. And so Jesus was communicating with his touch and with his action. You are loved. I am going to care for you. I'm touching your ears. These are gonna work in a moment. I'm doing something rather unusual. I'm gonna spit on my fingertips and touch your tongue. Now, saliva was generally believed in a Jewish sense to be unclean. And you can go back in Leviticus and places and read about the different parts of the body and things like blood and different things that were considered unclean. But there is evidence from the ancient world that saliva was also considered to have healing or medicinal qualities. I have this quote here. This is out of the Pillar New Testament Commentary. James R. Edwards writes, Hellenistic or Greek, remember he's still in a very Gentile population, likely this man was Gentile. Hellenistic healers were noted for attempting cures by the application of various balms, some of which were rather unpleasant. In the footnote of this article, he mentions an example of mixing the blood of a white chicken with honey and putting it on someone's eyes for an eye salve. And this, again, this isn't a godly thing, I'm not promoting that, I'm just saying this is what they believed would heal. So sometimes it was very weird and strange. I'm not too fond of thinking of chicken blood being placed on my eyes, I don't know about you, but they would do these things. So it is not impossible that Jesus adopts such protocol in the Gentile Decapolis in order to convey to the man what he might expect from him. And so it helps potentially answer the question, why would he spit on his fingers? Perhaps he understood, this man needs to know what I'm about to do, and I wanna communicate it with him. I'm gonna touch his ears, I'm gonna do perform an action that he might have associated with healing based on his culture before I finish and heal him. And so the writer goes on to say, although Jesus may have used common means, he uses them to an uncommon effect. I don't know of any Hellenistic healer that could spit on his fingertips and touch a tongue and have it be healed like Jesus. Only Jesus can do this. So he wants to make sure that this man understands you are loved, you are an individual, and I am about to heal you. You're about to see What is you're about to experience healing from me? It's gonna happen by my power And I want you to be ready for it Also some see the spittle from his mouth being applied to heal as a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ the blood from the body of Christ which would be spilled out to heal our sins Some have seen it as a foreshadowing of that. So he takes him aside, he puts his fingers in his ears, he spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, again, a visual sign that this man, this spittle, this isn't your normal Hellenistic healing procedure. I'm looking up to heaven, where God is. That communicated, this healing you're about to receive is coming from God. not from some weird witch doctor thing. This was a God thing, and this man needed to know that. And it also reminds us that prayer is the pathway to God's intervention. If Jesus chose to pray, how much more should we be in constant prayer to the Father? Now we get to this word psi, and this is where I titled The Psi of the Savior, the word here, translated sigh is stenazzo. It means to express oneself involuntarily in the face of an undesirable circumstance. It means to sigh or groan. Jesus was making it known with this sigh to all who were listening. Remember, the man couldn't really hear this. I don't know if he could feel it and the vibrations through, if Jesus was still touching him in the ears or the shoulders perhaps, or making contact, but Jesus is making it known to this man and to all who are listening that he cared about this man's life up until this point. It wasn't just, you're healed, go on with your life as if everything's good. Jesus takes a moment to identify with the pain and the suffering that this man had been experiencing for as long as this condition had been. And if it was a tongue-tied issue, it had been since birth. And likely, the deafness was also from birth. Jesus' sigh showed that he was identifying with this man's suffering. Otherwise, why do it? Why bother? Look up into heaven, say be open, everything's good. But he doesn't do that. He pauses in the middle of this miracle to sigh, to identify with the suffering. He saw and felt the pain and the hurt and the loneliness and all the things that come from having these conditions. If you think of a life of going through life, through to adulthood without the ability to hear, without the ability to speak, being an outcast, unable to function in society, a life. Think of all the things that this man had missed out on up until this point. Missed out on hearing a loved one's voice. He had never heard his family or his friends speak. He saw their mouths moving. He had sight. He never heard their voices. He didn't know one voice from another. That's something we take for granted. He never heard the rain falling and hitting the ground. He never heard the song of a bird in the air. He never heard someone saying his name before. You think about that, it's heartbreaking. Think of going through life without those things. Think of a life of absolute silence. All the time. Constant silence. A life where so many thoughts have formed words in your mind but never get to be spoken. So many times when having one's voice would have been so helpful and so meaningful, yet all that comes out are these muffled syllables that no one understands. This is why Jesus sighed so deeply within Himself. As God, He could look back in time and see this man's life up until this point, and all the pain and all the suffering and all the things in life that He missed and longed for and could not have. We have a Savior that identifies with our suffering. John. Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, John's talking. Yeah, she just burst out in tears, right? Yeah. So have you looked at the videos of those that get the cochlear implant and they've never been able to hear and then they can hear? If you just need a good cry, go watch those. Just have the Kleenex box ready, because boy, it's just, I mean, their eyes get so big, and the tears, I mean, they just start sobbing uncontrollably. And of course, the technician has seen this probably dozens, if not hundreds of times. So they're like, it'll be OK. And they're like, I would be a wreck. I would not be able to have that job. Because emotionally, I wouldn't be able to handle that. I would just have to stop and cry with them. Some other comments, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, Romans 8, Barbara mentioned, where it says, all creation groans under sin. And Jesus saw all of that in a moment of time, saw this man's life up until this point. And he knows what he's about to do. And it reminds me also of the tomb of Lazarus. He knows what he's about to do. He's already told his disciples, I'm gonna go wake him up, right? I'm gonna use sleep as a euphemism for death because my power is so great, it's basically just waking somebody up. That's how God sees death. And he knew he was about to go do that, and yet he pauses at the tomb where all the mourners and the weeping and the crying, and he weeps with them. He chooses to weep, and it's that short little verse, those two words, Jesus wept. It doesn't tell us how long he wept for. We just gotta read, read, read, Jesus wept. Next, roll the stone away. Did it happen that quickly? I don't believe it could have. The word there is a sobbing. It's a grieving from the core of one's being, and he wept, and here he sighs. We go back to other scriptures, Isaiah 53, 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken and spittin' by God and afflicted, Hebrews 2, 17. Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, his fellow Jews, his fellow humans. Why? That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation, satisfaction for the sins of the people. He understands what it's like to live our lives. He understands our suffering. He understands your suffering today. And I believe the reason, another reason, besides those that were there that day, who inspired Mark to put that little he side in there? The Holy Spirit did. Why? For our benefit. Us, as the readers of Mark, over 2,000 years later, we read that phrase and it touches us the way it touched them. Jesus wanted us, because Jesus knew as God that that phrase would be in our Bibles, and we'd be reading it over 2,000 years later, He wants us, the readers of Mark, to know that when we suffer, He sighs with us. for us. He sees our lives like he saw this man's life, and he sees all the hurt of your life that you've lived up until this point. He sees it all. And he sighs, and he sorrows with you. Even at the moment of healing, he sees all the hurt. He sees all the loneliness. He sees when we are abandoned. Maybe you've been abandoned. Maybe you've been betrayed. He sees that. He sees when we suffer for doing right. And when he sees these things, he doesn't just jump in and fix it right away. He pauses and he sighs with us and for us. Have you ever found yourself sighing with this deep sigh, deep in your heart? Because the pain is so real. Maybe you're suffering, you're sighing right now. We have a Savior who's sighing with you. He sees the hurt. He sees when we sigh. We have a Holy Spirit who puts words to our sighs. Likewise, in Romans 8, 26, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Have you been there where it hurts so bad you don't even know what to pray? The Spirit does. He makes, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I don't even know how to pray, God. I'm at the end of the line here. You're gonna have to do something. You have to step in. I'm begging you. We become those beggars again. And the Holy Spirit says, I've got you. I know what needs to be prayed for you. I'm gonna go intercede for you right now. It's Christians, what a hope we have. What a hope we have in our pain. We come back to our text here, and Jesus gives this command. And he says it in the Aramaic, afaftha, and notice that Mark immediately translates this. Remember that Mark's audience is mainly Jews. I'm sorry, sorry, strike that. Mark's audience is mainly Gentiles that wouldn't have known Aramaic, potentially, probably Gentiles that lived in Rome. It's probably the area he was writing to. And notice who Jesus gives the command to. Who does Jesus command to be opened? And said to him, he gives the command to the guy that has no ability to save himself, But he gives him this command, and I can't help but wonder, and I'm speculating a little bit, so you don't have to go with me on this, but I tend to believe that that might have been the first word that this man had ever heard, because he says it to him. Why would he say it to him? He's been doing all these actions to communicate with this man this whole time, and now he speaks out, and he says a word out loud. He says, be opened. Now, did the man read his lips? I don't know. I just see the power of this phrase. He says, be opened, and what happens? Verse 35, immediately, there's our word that Mark has been using over and over again. Immediately, his ears were opened. There was no time, there was no gap, it was immediate. Instantaneously, his ears were opened, and the impediment, the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he had to go through occupational therapy to learn how to speak well again. No. He never heard a word before. Now, instantly he has a vocabulary, he has the ability to speak it, and he has the ability to speak it plainly, only God. Only God can do this. What power is in our Savior? In that split second of time, the chains were broken. the bond on the tongue was released and it full healing. Psalm 107, 14, he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their chains in pieces. That's what he's still doing. Is Jesus still doing this today, by the way? Yeah, no, we don't see this kind of healing of spitting on the fingers and talking, I mean, that was Jesus' thing, right? Can Jesus still heal today? Yeah, He still does. He still does. He still can. He's unstoppable. He's an infinite God. That means He has no limits. So He breaks the chain. What a beautiful, beautiful picture. As we conclude, we have two more points. Third point, a commanded silence, verse 36. Then He commanded them, the man and those that had brought him, that they should tell no one. But the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And we remember the leper back in Mark 1 does the same thing. We see Jesus, what theologians call the messianic secret. He did not, he had a mission, right? Seeking to save the lost, to be the suffering servant, He could not be crowned king yet. We've looked at that already in Mark, even at the feeding of the 5,000. There seemed to be an insurrection coming and he disperses everyone. And here he is true to his mission to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It would not be within that mission to have a multitude of people come to him and try to stir up this uprising with this healer. He did not want to be known as some kind of Hellenistic or Gentile miracle worker or healer of the masses. It's not why Jesus came. He did not come to do miracles. Yes, He did them, and that was part of His mission, so I gotta be careful how I say that, because the prophets said He would do this, but that wasn't His main goal. His main goal that He always kept in front of Him was the cross. nothing would pull him from that unlike the Syro-Phoenician mother we met last time who understood Jesus mission you remember that I don't want to take the children's bread just give me some of the scraps I don't want to interfere with your mission yes Lord she said these people have a different view broadcasting this event and so Jesus' command to silence, as we said, was made to the leper back in Mark 144. When he disobeyed Jesus' command, which was not good, Jesus could no longer openly enter a city. He had to go in covertly at night, potentially, and all his ministry now took place in the open. Now, God knew that was gonna happen. It was part of the plan. Jesus' command was still disobeyed. And so we think about this. Jesus also understood that just knowing Jesus as a miracle worker, or just knowing him as a healer wasn't enough. That wouldn't save us from our sin, going around and healing a bunch of people. He had to be known by so much more than that, and in fact, Jesus refused to be proclaimed until after his suffering on the cross. That's when people finally understood His resurrection and his ascension, it was after that that the apostles finally understood when the Holy Spirit came, oh, this is a whole new mission now. We've got to go out and proclaim Jesus. And then he was proclaimed, and there was nothing to hold them back. So these Gentiles break his command, they proclaim it widely. But notice what they say as we wrap up Mark 7, we wrap up our lesson for today, this commending statement, they give him this commendation. and they were astonished beyond measure. That phrase, this is the only time it's used in the New Testament. Their minds were absolutely blown away. They were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. Were they right about that? Oh yes. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. And we see that Genesis 131, all things well, God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was what? Very good. And Jesus as God is doing everything very good. He has done all things Well, and then they make the statement about his ability to heal, his making the deaf hear and the mute to speak, and we saw that back in Isaiah 35, verses five and six. Here's the prophecy that Jesus just made come true. Then the eyes of the blind shall be open, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. So as we conclude this morning, our sighing Savior understands our sufferings and he has truly done all things well and now he has called us to do his work. He's called us to become part of his mission and called us by his power for us to do all things well. We can't touch tongues and ears and heal deaf and mute people. We don't have that ability. But God has given us a mission, and he is calling us into it, that by his power, we would do all things well. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the mission. We thank you for your power. We thank you, Lord, that you identify with our suffering, you sigh with us, you weep with us. Lord, we didn't get to the other passage in the Psalms that speaks of our Our tears being kept in a bottle, you keep record every time we weep, every time we're in pain, every time we're suffering, Lord. You see it, and you know it, and you weep with us, and you sigh with us. We're so thankful that you identify, Lord, with us, and you suffer with us in that sense. So please help us, Lord, to take that as an example. Help us to sigh when others sigh. Help us to weep with those that weep. Mourn with those who mourn, as you've commanded elsewhere. And Lord, help us to be those that go about doing all things well, for the sake of your glory. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.