The Way the Kingdom Expands
Text: Mark 7:24-37
Proposition: The kingdom of God grows in ways that are unexpected, as it draws in people of faith and perseverance it moves them from relief to revelation.
Introduction: Jesus had begun His ministry with His baptism in the Jordan almost 3 years earlier, it is now the spring of 29AD. Within one year of this date the cross of Christ will be accomplished. The spring of AD 30 will be the Pentecost that marked the Ascension of Jesus into heaven and the beginning of the church as the Holy Spirit is poured out upon those gathered in the upper room. Those events are but one year away from the details we are about to study. Previously, it has been an intense time where Jesus and the disciples have travelled and taught to the point where at times they hardly slept let alone had time to eat. In Mark 7 it describes how Jesus now leads the team of disciples out of the Galilee to the northern coastal region. In fact they leave Israel and enter the northern city of Tyre, located in what we would call Lebanon. Certainly it would be warmer here, perhaps there would be less people who knew of Him, perhaps there was an opportunity to rest. With but one year left Jesus would be setting the truth of Who He is into the disciples hearts, the truth of redemption, the truth of salvation by grace through faith, the truth of the upcoming events in Jerusalem when it would seem like the bottom fell out of their lives as Christ would be taunted and put to death. It is with this background that Jesus and the disciples enter the bustling Canaanite city of Tyre. Turn with me to Mark 7:24-37 as we read of what happened next.
I. The Kingdom of God Expands With the Tiniest of Crumbs. Perhaps the disciples felt that they were on spring break, they’d taken test after test with Jesus, now it was time for a well deserved rest. In a place where nobody knows who you are the demands on you should decrease. They had just checked into a guest house when this woman, a Syro- Phoenician woman, a Gentile woman, comes banging on their door. She is asking that Jesus would bring relief to her daughter, she’s asking that Jesus would come and cast out the demon that is terrorizing her child. The disciples likely turn her away the first time but then she persists. She catches them out in the streets a short while later and again and again pleads for her daughter. In the parallel account in Matthew 15, the woman cries out to Jesus saying, “Have mercy on me O Lord, Son of David!...” Amazingly she makes the distinction that Jesus is Jewish, she even calls Him ‘Lord’ or ‘Sovereign One’. At first Jesus would not even answer her. The disciples were becoming more and more frustrated with her. Their inability to deter her seemed to imply that it would take a word from Jesus to finally get rid of her. So Jesus turns to her and says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Sounds kind of absolute and it is a strange statement to make when you are standing on Phoenician soil. She drops before His feet to worship Him, crying out, “Lord, help me.” It’s then that Jesus makes this unforgettable statement, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Undeterred, her response is that even the small dogs, that is the house dogs, that are under the table are taken care of in a family. In Matt. 15 Jesus response is, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.”What has just happened is that the kingdom of God has expanded, faith has touched the Gentile peoples again. Something in this woman’s response blessed the heart of Jesus. Consider what her response indicates:1. She recognized the sovereign directions of God. The fact that she was likened to a house dog in comparison to the children, or people of Israel, meant that God had an order in which He was going to move, a sovereign order. She accepted that.2. She recognized the authority of God and she welcomed it. She knew that His authority was over her, an authority that would care even for her.3. She recognized the power of God, just the tiniest of crumbs from the Masters table could be life for her daughter. In other words the ability of God to heal her daughter did not come anywhere near exhausting the resources of God. 4. She knew that it was her responsibility to ask. Despite the opportunities for pride to get in the way, her responsibility was to seek, to knock, to ask. You might be asking yourself, ‘ Was all this a test, was she the only reason they came all that way to the city of Tyre, was Jesus teaching the disciples about faith or about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the kingdom?’One thing we can know for sure is the kingdom of God expands through the tiniest crumbs of faith, it casts out the devil, it blossoms faith and it leaves a trail behind that cannot be hidden.
II. The Kingdom of God Expands By Opened Ears and Unbound Tongues. Through valleys, across rivers and past mountains, Jesus and the disciples make their way around to the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. They are now back in the region where Legion had been healed and sent out. Doubtless there were many people that they brought to Jesus for healing but one particular person stood out in Peter’s memory of the events and Mark records it. It was the time that they brought this man who was deaf and had a speech impediment of some kind. What made this odd is that the people presented him to Jesus and asked that Jesus lay His hand upon him and heal him. The odd part is that Jesus didn’t do that, instead He took the man aside and in the silence that made up this man’s world He gestured to the man that by the fingers of Jesus now put into his ears and by the spittle of Jesus now put on his tongue and by the word of Jesus uttered in prayer upwards to the Father, that which had sealed this man up was now opened. It is very personal to put your fingers into someone’s ears, not mention putting your saliva on your finger and then touching their tongue with it. Jesus could have gotten away with the first action by the curiosity of the deaf man but the act of touching the man’s tongue with His saliva could only have been allowed through a desperate faith that trusted the healer implicitly. The word that Jesus spoke, ‘Ephphatha’ is an Aramaic word, a language that was probably the main language of Jesus though He also spoke Hebrew and Greek. The word meant, ‘Be opened’, and instantly the man was healed, he heard and spoke and the people marveled. It’s strange that the opened ears of this man, which point to a saving faith and the expanding of the kingdom of God, stand in stark contrast to the closed ears of the people who were commanded by Jesus several times to not spread the details of what had occurred. The kingdom expanded in small ways, quiet ways and not in the loud clamor of the crowd. So what can we take from these two very different accounts of how Jesus heals people, of how the kingdom of God expands? Consider these thoughts:
1. God does not restrict Himself to one method. The first healing took place without Jesus ever seeing the little girl. The mother’s faith was the agent of relief. The second healing was a face to face encounter with Christ.
2. The way God does work is that relief is meant to lead to revelation. The miracles are signs that point beyond the relief they bring, they point to the wonder of Jesus Who is greater than any, who opens what has been closed that He would be known and made known.
3. The humility of faith to ask God in a persevering way such that even if but a tiny crumb is the answer it can translate into a life transforming event.
4. How will God test our faith, how would I handle His response if He said my pride would be the very last thing He would throw bread to.
5. What would a crumb from God’s table look like if it landed in Blackfalds? Would I recognize the source, would I know the power the Lord can do with it even from a distance? Is a crumb a store front where the gospel could be offered? Is a crumb a bag of children’s clothes? Is a crumb a tract held out to someone on their doorstep?
6. What if Jesus wants open your ears and loose your tongue, are you willing to let Jesus put His spittle in your mouth. It would be the equivalent of Peter when He said, “Lord don’t just wash my feet, but pour out over my head and my whole body.”
Are you looking for relief in some way or another, relief from job uncertainty, relief from relational uncertainty, relief from the turmoil of your own sin and the way Satan uses it against you. Jesus invites you to come, not just for crumbs, but to dine with Him. Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”The kingdom of God expands in ways that are unexpected, it draws in people of faith and perseverance and it moves them from relief to revelation.