I invite you to turn in the Word of God to the Gospel of Mark, to Chapter 7. Mark, Chapter 7. This morning we are continuing our series, as Elder Liston said, working through the Gospel of Mark. And last week we left off with Jesus and his disciples traveling northwest up to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, this week we join them as they are traveling now southeast back where they came from to the Sea of Galilee. And our reading will be from verse 31 to verse 37. Before we hear it, let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our Father, apart from the work of your Spirit, your word will only produce in us greater condemnation as we'll hear but not respond. Life, true spiritual life, comes from you. For Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. And he tells us that we can do nothing apart from him. Humble us to believe that, Lord, but also to believe that you are gracious and willing to work, and that when we call upon you, you hear us, We desire to be strengthened in our assurance through the message this morning, that you would increase our sense of wonder at your goodness, that you would also strengthen us to walk in the way that you've called us to, generally, but also in the particulars of this passage. Uproot any resistance in our hearts, overcome our indifference or sluggishness, make us to be what you desire. But where our limitations are not according to fault, but according to mere human weakness, we thank you, Father, that you know that we are as grass, and you are merciful. All this we bring before you in Jesus' name. Amen. Hear the word of the Lord. Then he, that is, Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee. in the region of the Decapolis, which means the Ten Cities. 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, Ephetha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened, and 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. Thus ends the reading of the word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Amen. There is no question that one of the richest gifts that God has ever given to human beings is the gift of hearing. Most of us hear decently. And then there are others who experience a longing to know what that's like, or who could hear at one time, can't now, owing to age, or an accident, or some other reason. And they long, don't doubt how much they long, to hear well again. This is one of the great gifts. And tied to that gift of hearing is the gift of speech. Again, most people can speak decently well. That has very much to do with God's common goodness in the world, because things could be worse than they are. But think how many of your blessings have come through those two abilities. Long conversations that you've had into the night that you count among the most joyful experiences that you treasure. Your first time hearing a symphony. Beautiful birdsong. The advice that you gave or that you received that was life-changing. So many of our greatest experiences are mediated through sound and through speech. Why did God give these gifts in a distinct way to human beings? Was it for us to fritter away on useless talk? And I, like Elder Liston, stand condemned. Some of us like to talk a lot and not always with a sense of what God's will is. And yet we are told that we'll give account for every idle word That's because God gave us these gifts for a much more glorious purpose than we often think about, in order that we would bear his image. And what does it mean to image God? To be like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as human beings doesn't mean becoming infinite. We can never be like that. But we enter into what are called his communicable attributes, the ones that he can share with us to some extent. And that means the ability to communicate with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Not identically as they do, but these faculties you have were given to you ultimately not so that you could talk to some beloved spouse in this life, as wonderful as that can be, not to sing and receive attention from people, or to enjoy an instrument. At the highest note, the reason why you have these abilities was so that you could converse with the God who made you, knows you, loves you. To enter into that fellowship, to be spoken to and to speak back and to understand. What a gift that we have. And think of everything that goes into that. The ear. I don't begin to really understand it, but I know it involves vibrations in the inner ear and something called a hammer. We can hear so well, even compared to many organisms. There are a few that hear better than us, but we're so well situated. And then speech involves more than 15 different organs. It's not just your tongue. Because we have to make not just the sound, but we have to shape it. And that involves how we stretch our cheeks and our lips, the soft palate, all these different parts, your teeth. Without them, your voice is changed. All of this by God's design so that you could make a clear sound. And that's so that we have divine communion in a way that is embodied. But even beyond that, so that we as a community express the divine image together. Just as there are three eternal persons who are one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so God's design was not for you to be an individual alone forever. We've been placed into community, and all of these gifts are by his design the overflow of his goodness. So in the very first place, as you consider that gift, be humbled to give thanks. But then think what a wreck sin and the curse has justly made of those gifts. Physically, but also spiritually. Physically, it's one of the real tragedies of the fall that there are many people who are born without one or the other of these gifts. And then on top of that, many others who lose these gifts over time. In fact, if we live long enough, many, many people will lose these gifts. And then I know others of you who suffer, as I do, to a small amount, but I know at least a few of you who do to a large extent with tinnitus. You just hear that ringing all the time. If the air conditioner's not on, you hear, eee. You'll know that you have entered glory when that stops. And it's just, I think we should train ourselves in a sense, hearing that eee, to hear, sin. Because it didn't come from God's goodness that things are broken this way. That comes from man's rebellion. Sin always brings about brokenness. It destroys the physical world in many ways, but it also destroys especially our spiritual lives and our relationship with God and with others. It devastates your ability to communicate with others. Some of us have the faculty of speech in the sense that our mouths work right, but we cannot find the words to repair a relationship that has gone on the wayside through some offense rendered. That can include knowing how or even being willing to speak to the Lord who made us. And I believe that's at the bottom of what's so significant about Mark chapter 7. Here in this particular miracle in verses 31 through 37, Christ is demonstrating for us. It's all about a foretaste of things to come. He's demonstrating his power and his willingness in the gospel to bring back, to restore, to heal the human capacity for communion, for conversation. You were made to communicate with God and others. And in the gospel, we have the assurance that everyone who comes to Christ in faith will be restored. There's a beginning of that in this life. It's brought to completion in the age to come. And if we enjoy that for ourselves, then We also have a duty to bring others to Christ, as we're going to see these people did with the man in our story. Now, as we look at this passage, we're going to examine it more closely under two main divisions. First, we're going to expound upon some of the details in the text to be sure that we understand it clearly. And then once we have expounded upon the text, our second main division, we are going to explain its significance spiritually for today. And by way of conclusion, we'll look at some of the ways that the Lord is calling us to live out of this passage. But look with me at verse 32 as we take some time here. Let's first expound details in this passage. Let's walk through it. Verse 32, it says, they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him, that is Jesus, to lay his hand on the man. They brought this man to Jesus, no doubt, because they had heard or perhaps some of them had even seen his miracles. Jesus is passing through an area that he's already been in. And increasingly, as he crisscrosses through Judea, people are spreading word and more and more people believe and want to hear and to see the wonderful things that Jesus is doing. Now, that doesn't mean that they necessarily understand his identity at this point, that they believed upon him as their savior. but more and more are convinced he is in fact a prophet from God, he does have power from the Lord, and these people want to bring this man who is deaf and with a speech impediment to Jesus. We don't know why the man didn't first go himself, although you have to think at that time, the ability to communicate with him about Jesus was so limited. Sign language as we know it, doesn't come into being until the last 200 years of human history. People had basic signs for food and water and things. But to be deaf was to be almost entirely shut out of society, to be isolated. And so they have heard about Jesus, and they bring the man. And I wonder what he's thinking. He doesn't know where he's being brought. We don't know exactly how far he's being taken. And that's how it feels sometimes when we evangelize someone. They don't really know what they're in for or where we're bringing them, but we're bringing them to Jesus. And here they bring this man to Jesus. They are doing everything in their power to help him. What a wonderful demonstration and example worthy of our imitation of compassion upon people who have been affected by the fall, not simply in the way this man was. But we should look with mercy upon the brokenness and the deficiencies that people experience around us, including deficiencies of character that might offend and grieve us. But to bring them where they can have healing, to bring them to Christ. Now, why did they beg Jesus to lay hands on the man? Is that because that's the special way that Jesus heals by putting his hand? No, we've seen in past sermons already. Jesus wasn't limited by distance. He is the eternal God. If he wills, he can simply speak the word and somebody on the other side of the globe would be healed. But it has been God's common usage throughout history in both the old covenant and under the new covenant to assign certain symbols that are healthy for our faith. He understands our weakness, our desire to be communicated with, and they want Jesus then to act according to the symbols that you find in the Old Testament. When somebody's receiving a blessing, often the priest would lay hands upon the person. Under the new covenant as well, what do we do when somebody is being ordained for office? The scripture tells us the inverse. It says, don't lay hands on any man suddenly, to be a deacon. Well, that implies when the time is right, lay hands on them. And that's a symbol of the Lord giving a portion of his blessing and spirit and power through the person that he's called to the person who's being blessed. Likewise, in the book of James, we're told that if somebody is very sick, send the elders for them. And the elders are to anoint them with oil as a symbol of the Holy Spirit and for their comfort and to lay hands on them and pray for them. Many Christians have never experienced that, have let alone requested. I believe that is for our time. You may not know that we have done that as elders at different times with people. If you request that, we will come to you and pray for you. And that's not, we shouldn't be superstitious about this, as though the Lord couldn't, again, heal at a distance apart from these things. But he knows how to draw near to us for comfort, and he's willing to do that. Now verse 33, we see Jesus took this man aside from the crowd privately. Why is that? I believe that Jesus in doing this is communicating something to the man. He's communicating to him that the man is not just some problem in a crowd. It's not as if Jesus just shotguns healing over crowds. Over and over and over again in the gospels, Jesus deals with individuals. The infinite God has enough to go around for every person whom he calls. And here he takes the man aside and begins to deal with him in compassion. He's treating him not like a problem, he treats him like a person. And it's important for us to remember that too as we try to minister to people who have one or another kind of deficiency, whether bodily or spiritually. The willingness to give them direct care. Also, this is intended to keep the crowd from focusing more on miracles than upon the message. The message is the most important part. There could be some kind of wonder today, and everyone in here felt healed in some sense, and it would not be more important than the message of the gospel, because reconciliation is forever. Healing may be for a time in this age. And so Jesus is putting the emphasis upon the teaching. Then verse 33, what does he do with this man? It says, Jesus, this might seem strange to you at first, might have, much more seem strange to the man, perhaps. Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears, and then after spitting, touched the man's tongue. Why? Again, Jesus could have just spoken, as he had with others, and maybe if he was healing your tongue, that would be your preference here. You feel it's very odd. What's the point of the spit? And why is somebody sticking their fingers in my ears? It might seem mysterious. It might seem magical. I don't think so. I am persuaded to agree with the majority of commentators throughout the ages. People from John Calvin in the 1500s to a man, Robert Edwards or James Edwards, who writes very recently. that within the ancient Near Eastern culture, and given the limitations of sign language at this time, this would have been perhaps the clearest way for Jesus to communicate to the man what he was going to do. When he puts his fingers into the man's ears, he's signifying, your ears, and I imagine he wiggles them a little bit. These, I'm going to open them. And then, by my best guess of the text, I don't claim to know it perfectly, that he spits upon his tongue and applies it to the man's tongue. That to you, you can think gross, but a big part of that grossness to you has to do with our knowledge since the 1800s of germs, our awareness of germ theory. It might surprise you that in many cultures, especially ancient cultures, saliva is overwhelmingly associated with cleanliness, with healing. That comes in part from just observation. Ancient people were not always as informed as us, but they were excellent observers of patterns. They were not idiots. They just didn't have all the information that we have in certain categories. And they would look and they'd see animals that are wounded, and the animal does what with its wound? Licks it. And then what might happen? The wound begins to get better. Part of that has to do with just the fact that I learned this very recently, and painfully myself, that certain kinds of wounds get better more easily when they remain moist. When they remain moist, there's the greater potential to heal. I saw a nurse nodding her head. See, I've learned a thing. I hope it happens again. And so this would be a way that the man understands that Jesus is both helping him with his hearing and that Jesus is going to heal his mouth. But then also there's a Hebraism or Hebrew kind of cultural understanding to this, which is Hebrews associated based on the old covenant law, bodily fluids are associated with a person's life force. It's one of the reasons why various bodily emissions would cause you to not be able to enter the temple. It wasn't because it was icky. Ancient people were probably by and large far less grossed out than modern people who have found a way to separate themselves from everything natural that they possibly can. But it's because it was viewed as a portion of your life going away from you. especially in a desert culture where moisture is life. And here it's as if Jesus is saying, I who am clean and I am healthy, I who am richly accepted, I am extending myself to you who feel as if God is against you because of these deficiencies. You who are sick, who are wounded. And so Christ extends himself to this man. Now look in verse 34 what it says. And looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed and said to the man, Ephatha, that is, be opened. Why does Jesus look up? I don't think that it's necessarily because Jesus could see the heavens in a way that we don't, that he could see God above as if the elevation of the Lord is X feet above the ground. My son recently asked me, when Australians look up to God, What direction do they look? And I had to walk him through, as I imagine some of you have had to walk through. Well, elevation is an analogy in this sense. That God is supremely above us in being. And the invisible heaven is above us in mode of existence, whatever that means. And here, Jesus looks up to help the man understand to direct his faith up toward God. And Jesus sighs as he so often does in the gospel when he's encountering the brokenness of creation. Indeed, Romans 8.32 uses the same term for sighing here, although more frequently in our Bibles it's translated groaning in Romans 8. Romans 8.32 says that believers groan with creation as we await the glorified state of the world. Have you ever groaned when you look upon the tragedy of life? I'm sure you have. And here Christ beholding a man in brokenness is grieved. Yes, he knows he's about to be healed, but he's grieved that it should be this way. And that reflects the way that those who are righteous in Christ pray, earnestly, not without feeling. If you feel very little when you pray, there's a different prayer that you can also pray, God change my heart. And we're called to enter into those feelings. Now, why does Jesus speak? and say, be opened if the man is still deaf up to that point. It may be in the very instant that Jesus says it, the man hears it. That's possible, like with Jesus healing a man with a withered hand. He can just say, stretch it out, and it happens. Or it may be that Jesus is addressing the man holistically as a creation, speaking to the man's body to be healed. Just like he could say if he wanted to water, be wine. In any case, Christ demonstrates his power here where it says in verse 35, and his ears were opened and his tongue was released and he spoke plainly. It gives every indication that the healing is instantaneous. And think about that, when it says he spoke plainly, it's not as if Jesus simply cures a tongue tie and the man is gonna need months of speech therapy to learn how to speak Hebrew or Aramaic with a good accent. Instantly, Christ conveys to this man Not just the physical reorganization, but the cognitive information to speak as he ought. If he could babble the world at Babel, he can unbabble it here. And that's one of the wonderful things as we imagine what it shall be like in glory. Are we all going to speak the same language at first? Perhaps. How will we learn it? You know, is that why there's silence for 30 minutes in heaven? That's why everybody's learning the language in the Book of Revelation? He can just give us the language, even as he gave the birds their songs, and he gives this man his language. And where it says that his tongue was released, this is a very vivid term. Where you find it used elsewhere in the New Testament and outside of the New Testament, it's overwhelmingly used in the context of setting someone free, typically of releasing shackles. Does that mean that it's literally that his tongue was, you know, facing a tongue tie? It's possible. But I think that really Mark is getting at the sense of bondage this man had been in up to this time. He's finally free to sing. He's finally free to speak his heart to people. Imagine the conversations he would have with people back home. And then verse 36, and Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. He does this often in the Gospels, and it's very clear from the Gospels that his point is not that they would never tell anyone. It's that they would respect that his reason for being in their town on that day is not mainly to do miracles. He's just so overwhelmingly compassionate that he keeps doing them. And they serve as signs of his authority for the miracles. But he's there to preach the good news of the kingdom, to teach people the way of hope and the way of life in Christ. And if everybody hears about the miracle, all they're going to do is ask for miracles. And so instead, he says, quiet, quiet, no, no. And they begin to shout, you won't believe what just happened. And what happens? He loses his ability to be effective in ministry, humanly speaking. God's perfect will is done, but there's something to be learned in that. Sometimes we are overzealous. We're zealous without wisdom. And we think that by breaking Christ's commands, we're actually going to affect something good for his kingdom. And the opposite happens. I don't think it's an identical comparison, but sometimes the way that we try to proclaim the goodness of Christ and his kingdom, perhaps online, maybe you're one of those people who's terminally online and needs to rethink how you engage with people on social media. The way that we're making Christ's glories known may in itself be deafening to the people that we wish were listening. If you want to know whether or not you have that problem, the best way to know is to ask others who are mature to tell you the truth. Because if you really do have that problem, you honestly, you probably don't know. You are deaf to your own tone. And somebody did that, somebody from this church actually did that with me more than 10 years ago. And I have grown because somebody in this church first groaned in an entirely different way. That person came to me and said, hey, before I was even at this church, they contacted me, because I had served as an intern at one point. And they contacted me and said, hey, I saw what you posted, and have you ever thought about never posting something like that again? I owe that person for my growth. And we should have that kind of humility to recognize the very way that we want to glorify Christ Maybe the opposite of what would be good. Now we've seen most of the details here. More briefly, let's take a moment to explain some of the spiritual significance in this passage. What does the Holy Spirit want you to believe as we consider a miracle like this one in particular? The first, see it as a sign, as I've already said, a sign and demonstration of God's purpose in Christ and the gospel. Specifically, to overcome every barrier to human communion and communication. with God but also with other people. And to think then when Christ came and he lived among us, part of his total obedience was atoning for those sins against communication. Have you ever sinned against communication? Yes, in the sense that you've taken this gift God has given you and you've warped it in some way and done wrong with it. Have you ever spoken to anybody hurtfully or deceitfully We all have. And Christ's obedience with his mouth and with his ears is part of what covers us. The one who goes up to the cross doesn't go without ears and lips. He went up as a whole person because we've sinned with every part of who we are, body and soul. And he comes to remove all of those barriers. And his resurrection is the assurance that every part of us, including those communicative parts, are covered. And that means he's going to heal all bodily impairment. Rejoice in that. Rejoice in the first place for what you even had up to this point, sinners that we are, but then also for what you will have. Do we really think that our hearing is going to be inferior in glory? I look forward to being able to hear, if it be God's will, lower than 20,000 hertz. I want to hear the bass, not just with my body, I want to hear all of it. There are other creatures that can. Likewise, higher frequencies. You might think you don't want to hear higher frequencies, but what if it could be pleasurable? Our hearing, and then not just our physical hearing, but our spiritual hearing. Jesus says, let those who have ears to hear, hear. Meaning that some people are spiritually deaf, and all of us are spiritually hard of hearing. And to have that healed so that what the spirit communicates, we receive. Ever felt, Lord, just, I don't get what you want from me. It's not because he hasn't spoken. He's spoken. He's spoken in his word. He's spoken over and over again through the communion of the saints to one another. And yet we are so hard of hearing, and Christ will heal it all. Philippians 3 verse 21, he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. One of the pastors in the URCNA, now emeritus minister, Reverend Carl Heiss, well beloved for his preaching, dear to many, especially for the warmth of his ability to communicate, just gifted with words. And you might know that now, it was perhaps seven years ago, while he was out riding his bicycle, he was hit by a car. His life was spared, but it literally scrambled his ability to speak. He was diagnosed with aphasia and it's the strangest thing. It shows how much of speech is cognitive, not just physical. He went to speak after he had come out of the coma and In his head, he heard the right words. Out of his mouth would come the wrong words. Maybe every third or fourth word. It would be a sentence, and he would hear himself say the right words, but different words came out. If he wrote, all of the correct words happened. If he spoke, other words were slipped in. To think of the satisfaction that we will have, not only for ourselves, but for those whom we love, in glory to be relieved of the cognitive side, not just the physical side. What goodness has been given to us in the gospel? Heaven is not sitting on a cloud. It's a new earth where heaven has come down, where God's presence is made known together with all of these wonderful realities of this age, made whole. And then also overcoming, as I said, all spiritual impediments. Listen to what it says in Zechariah chapter seven. Speaking of Israel, it says, they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and they stopped up their ears that they might not hear me. Did they literally stop up their ears? No, but their hearts were all stopped up. And to think that you will finally desire that fully. But even now, shouldn't that shape our prayers? What a pathetic Christian life it is to only pray, Father, I thank you that in the age to come, I'll be just right. There's more to be had, and that includes more pleasure in communion. The sorrows in some way do increase with maturity because you become more aware of the brokenness of yourself in the world. But that's not all. The joy can increase too. And I hope you've seen that. Other believers who have passed stage by stage into maturity, what John Bunyan described as Beulah land, when you finally get to the place in your spiritual faith where it's like you're not in glory but you can see it. It's there. You believe. And the joy that we have is connected to the prayers that we pray. James says you have not because you ask not. And we should be praying God teach me what to say. Teach me how to hear you. Give me the lips to communicate to others not only outwardly but spiritually. By way of conclusion that I want to encourage you. Let me encourage you to humble yourself in the first place, to remember that these are gifts. They're not guaranteed. They are not guaranteed. Not in this age. But then rejoice. They are guaranteed for all of God's people in the age to come. And that includes people that you hurt for because Their communication is strained, whether by age or an accident or disease. Some of us, I have relatives in my own family, my own nephew is severely autistic. As if that limitation will last forever. We will be given the ears to hear the glories of the angels singing and of the saints with them. Why then should we not praise him and thank him? Lastly, I want to encourage you to remember the example of the people in this passage. They had compassion perhaps just on the outward body. But it says in Mark 7, 32, they brought the man to Jesus. They brought the man to Jesus. You then do not know how God might be willing to heal. And we bring people to Christ still. We bring them to Christ where his word speaks in here. God helping me, I give my word. I'm sure Reverend Smith would say the same and Reverend Poe. We want there to never be a service where the gospel isn't proclaimed. That's not just to comfort you. Bring them here and we will preach to them. Yes, evangelize them outside. Just completely riddle the person with opportunities to hear the gospel. and trust that the Lord who opens the ears outwardly can open the heart. Acts 16, Luke reports, one who had heard us was a woman named Lydia. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was being said by Paul. You ever spoken to somebody about the faith and you feel like they are just not even paying attention? It's just bouncing off their head. But the Lord who said, let there be light can as easily say, epithet. be opened to the heart. That is our prayer, and that's one of the great wonders of being reformed, of being clear-headed in our so-called Calvinism, what is really just biblical soteriology, biblical doctrine of salvation, that our faith is not that a person at the end of the day is morally better or more rational, but that God begins the good work that he finishes, that he creates a new heart, that he gives the new birth, that he transfers into us something of the life of Jesus Christ. And so when we use the means he has called us to, we can trust that he may. May that be our confidence then. Let's bring that to the Lord even now. Let's pray together and ask for his blessing as we seek to live in light of this. Father, we thank you for your word and the way that it confronts us to be honest that Even the most mature here is yet in many ways and often very hard of hearing. And we find when we try to pray that our lips don't work, that we often feel like Isaiah, that they are unclean. We pray that you would touch our lips again with the coal from the altar, with Christ himself, that you would burn away whatever sense of impurity is there in order that we might proceed forward in praise and petition, that we would not abuse grace, but that we would use it rightly, that we would run towards the holiness that would enable us to speak as the oracles of God. We pray that you would grant this to us, not only individually, but for the whole church, that together we may, with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in his name we pray, amen.