Have you ever seen a preview that made you want to see the movie? I find that most previews make me think I do not want to watch that movie. Maybe our little video of Israel would inspire you to want to go to the nation of Israel, but the place that I hope you will all be inspired to want to be today is the kingdom of God, and we're going to get a glimpse into what it's going to be like when Jesus reigns as king. So, I invite everybody open your Bible with me to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 7, verse 24, and we're going to see Jesus take a tour among the Gentiles. And he's going to do three miracles.
And if you have your bulletin, you can pull a handout there. In case you don't have a Bible, we have the whole text that we're going to go through there. You can see it's a longer text, because we want to go through all three of these miracles that Jesus does among the Gentiles together this morning, and what we're going to get here is a preview of what it will be like in the kingdom of God. We are taught to pray, Father in heaven, your kingdom come. And Jesus began the gospel of Mark, with his teaching, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. In fact, chapter 4, verse 11, of the gospel of Mark, Jesus said to his disciples, “To you it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.” And so, follow what Jesus does with these amazing miracles, and how they give us a glimpse of the coming Kingdom attraction. So out of respect for God's word, I invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture. I'm just going to read the first miracle here in Mark 7:24-30. Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of God.
And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And I want to throw the map up here on the screen so you can see where Tyre and Sidon are. They are clearly way up there to the north of Israel. So, Jesus has been getting into it with the scribes and the Pharisees over the last couple weeks. If you were here, we got to hear some of the teaching of Jesus, and he was saying, you're going after the traditions of men. You're leaving the commandments of God. If you were here last week, he said, it's not what happens on the outside that defiles you, it's what happens on the inside that defiles you. It's the sin in your own heart. And so, after this kind of tense encounter with these scribes and Pharisees, it seems that Jesus and the disciples, they go up to the north, and it seems like he just wants to hide. He doesn't want people to know he's there.
But we meet this woman here, this woman who comes and begs Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter. And So, Mark, when he's writing his gospel, he wants you to see where Jesus is among the Gentiles outside of Israel, and notice how he introduces this woman in verse 25. Right? It's like immediately, all of a sudden, at once, this woman is there. She's falling down at his feet. And then look at verse 26, “the woman was a Gentile,” okay? so the word there has this idea of the Hellenist, a Greek speaker, not someone who's of Israel, not a Jew, okay? A foreigner, someone from another nation. Here, she's called a “Syrophoenician”. In Matthew's gospel, he calls her a “Canaanite”. She is not one of the people of Israel. And Mark wants that to be clear to you; this is an interaction that Jesus is going to have with someone who's not a Jew, with a woman. And if you understand the culture at this time, the Jews, they definitely thought that they were God's chosen people, God's covenant nation. And that had puffed them up to think that they were better than other people. They even had this thought that men were perhaps more important than women. So, the fact that Mark wants you to see here a Gentile woman who is coming to Jesus, that should get all of our attention.
So, where this happens, who this woman is, that's meant to be a source of intrigue, that's meant to get us to pay attention. What's going to happen between Jesus and this woman? Okay? And so, you can see that even though she is a Gentile, she's not there in Israel, it says that she had heard of him. Can you circle that there in verse 25 if you're taking notes? What we're going to see is that this woman has great faith. That's what it says in Matthew 15, which is a parallel passage here to Mark 7, that this woman is going to end up being a woman of great faith. And her faith comes from hearing the report of Jesus. She has her daughter who has this possession by an unclean spirit. She's heard about Jesus. Now she sees that Jesus is here entire where she lives, and she is going to go and beg and fall down in front of Jesus. Okay, so we circle that she's heard of him. That's Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.”
So, the reports that are spreading that there's this man named Jesus, and he's doing miracles, and he's teaching with authority that the scribes don't have, and he's casting out demons, and he's healing those people who have disease. Well, she hears this, she believes this, and as a desperate mom who loves her daughter, she wants Jesus to do that for her child. And so, notice how she approaches him in verse 25, she's heard of him. “She came to him and she fell down at his feet.” Now, whenever Mark uses that phrase to fall down, it seems very significant, like the person understands who Jesus really is. So go back earlier in Mark and look here with me. But go back to chapter 3, verse 11. Chapter 3 verse 11 is another place where it uses that same phrase, to fall down here. It's about the demons falling down before Jesus. It says in Mark 3:11 “Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him, and they cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’” So the demons are falling down before him, and they're acknowledging who Jesus really is as the Son of God.
But go over to chapter 5, verse 33 and maybe you remember the woman who had the faith that if she just touched Jesus, he would heal her. But then when she did touch Jesus, she was overwhelmed with the power that surged within her to heal her. So, look at how she approaches Jesus here in Mark 5:33, this is after she's touched him, after she has been healed. “But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, she came in fear and trembling, and she fell down before him and told him the whole truth.” She had an idea of who Jesus is. When she touched him, she felt the full power of God healing her. And so now she's afraid, she's trembling, and she's falling down before him. So, this woman has heard of Jesus, and it seems like she really understands.
And this is the whole contrast that you're supposed to notice as you're reading through the Gospel of Mark. Wow. Well, she's a Gentile, she's a woman, and yet we're going to find out that this Syrophoenician woman has greater faith than most of the main characters we've been going through the Gospel of Mark with that anyone could end up having great faith in God, if they would just hear the word of Christ and respond to it by believing it. Well, this woman, she comes and falls down, she knows who Jesus is, and the conversation that Jesus has with this woman, it's a very fascinating conversation. Go back now to chapter 7 and look at what Jesus says, Because this woman is begging him, okay? this woman, she is not going to stop until Jesus casts the demon out of her daughter. Now, if you go over to Matthew 15, it gives you the information that she kept publicly crying out and begging, so that the disciples came to Jesus and were like, hey, maybe you should send this woman away, because she's kind of causing a scene. So, it's not like she just asked once politely or asked twice a little bit louder, she is continually crying out and begging for Jesus to do something. And the disciples are like, hey, this is a situation. We’ve got to send this lady on her way. And so, Jesus, he said to her in verse 27, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Now, when Jesus refers to the children, who is he referring to, everybody? He's referring to the Jews, the nation of Israel.
And throughout the Gospels, you get this idea that Jesus came for the lost sheep of Israel. In fact, even the apostle Paul, in Romans 1:16-17, says, “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek” or the Gentile. And so, Jesus is just stating here the fact that his primary mission is towards God's people in the nation of Israel, and they're the children, and they need to be fed first. Now, when Jesus mentions the dogs here. One of the things we have to understand in the context is they don't think of dogs in this context like we think of dogs in Huntington Beach. Oka? You’ve just got to realize they didn't have a dog beach there in Tel Aviv. All right? That's not how it worked. They would have seen dogs as scavengers, dogs as unclean animals who perhaps were licking dead things. And so, therefore, they would have been unclean. So, they weren't like, oh, you precious puppy, come here. That's not how they were thinking about dogs. Like many of you think about your dog. They would have had a different thought. In fact, in Matthew, chapter 7, verse 6, Jesus says, “Don't give what is holy to dogs.” See, there's more of a negative connotation. And the Jews definitely might have had a negative connotation even about this woman, that she's a Gentile, she belongs to Tyre she's Syrophoenician, a Canaanite. They might have even thought that she is unclean.
And so, what Jesus says here, it reflects that common mindset of the time. But look at how this woman answers back, and she answered him in verse 28, “Yes, Lord.” She doesn't seem offended. She shows Jesus respect. She says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” This woman is relentless. This woman is not going to stop asking until Jesus answers her. And her comeback here is so beautiful because she takes this analogy of the children versus the dogs and she flips it to that scene in someone's house where when the food falls from the table and the dog gets it, when they get the crumbs, when they get the leftovers, and they're wagging their tail and they're so happy about it. See, she's like, Yeah, I'll settle for the crumbs that fall from the table. She understands how it works. She knows that Jesus has the bread of life, and she's not going to stop asking until she gets it. And Jesus here in Mark, he says, “For this statement, you can go. Your daughter has been healed.” And remotely, Jesus shows his power and authority over the demons, that even when he's not there, he can just cast the demon out of her daughter. So, it's like a remote exorcism here. Boom, that demon is gone because of what the woman says in Matthew 15. Jesus says to this woman, you have great faith, mega faith.
And so, this woman is meant to be an example to you and to me of a right response to really trust God, that you would believe that Jesus, he has the life, he has the bread, and we’re not going anywhere until we at least get the crumbs that he has to offer us.
Now, this theme of bread in the Gospel of Mark is very important, and there is an intentional contrast. I believe that Mark is developing in his narrative about how people see Jesus having the bread or not having the bread, including more of our main characters, the disciples, who Jesus called to make them something they are not to follow him. Well, the disciples, they're having a hard time understanding that Jesus has the bread of life, that he can give life to all people. In fact, the disciples witnessed the feeding of the five thousand, this amazing miracle that Jesus multiplied the loaves of bread, and he fed so many of the lost sheep of Israel there on the green grass fields. But go back to chapter 6, verse 52 and notice what Mark said to us about the disciples and about Jesus multiplying the bread. It says in Mark 6:52, “For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were what hardened.” Now, we're going to see that again, because there's going to be another miraculous feeding in chapter 8... And go with me. Jump ahead to chapter 8. We're going to get to this miracle in a few minutes, but just jump to this line in Mark 8, verse 4, where we have another big crowd, and they're very hungry, and Jesus doesn't want to send them away, because they've been with him for three days. They've come from afar. And look at what the disciples have to say. So, it's the same setting, different place, same situation, though. And Mark 8:4, “And his disciples answered him, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?’” How could we possibly get enough bread to feed all these people out here in the wilderness, they say. And it's like, disciples, were you not there when he already did this one time, and now there's a second time, and the disciples are still like, well, we don't have any bread. How's it going to work? Jesus, this woman is not even being offered bread. And she's like, Jesus, I know you've got it. I know you've got it, Jesus. I've heard about you. I know who you are. She's fallen down at his feet. I know you have the bread, and I need it, and I'm not going anywhere until you give it to me. It's going to get even worse.
Go to chapter 8, verse 14. Chapter 8, verse 14. If you come back next week, it's a whole sermon, just warning you now, about the disciples not getting the bread, and Jesus is going to rebuke them. He's going to really tell them what he thinks. And here in verse 14, this is how the scene plays out, because it says, “Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.” And here's Jesus. He's cautioning them. He's teaching them. He's saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and beware of the leaven of Herod. Remember, the Pharisees represent the religious leaders who want to destroy Jesus. Herod represents the political leaders who want to destroy Jesus. And he's like, watch out for the leaven of these guys. Look at what the disciples think. “Right away,” verse 16, “they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no” what, everybody? Bread. They hear him talking about leaven, and they're like, oh, no, he's on to us. He knows we forgot the bread. We're busted. Do you have the bread? I only got one loaf. Who forgot the bread? You know, there's this whole conference. Jesus is over here warning them about false teachers. Jesus is over here saying, these guys are coming after us. These guys are going to get us. These guys are our enemies. Hey, watch out for them. And they're like, we don't have any bread. What are we going to do? What's going to be for lunch, right? And I'm glad some of you are laughing, because Mark is making this point so extreme, so you can see that even Jesus' own disciples couldn't see that he has the life. He can feed thousands. Of course, he could give bread out of one loaf for everybody there on the boat. But they can't see it. They don't understand it. They don't have faith. And yet, this woman way up to the north of Israel, she's not even being offered bread, and she's like, I know you've got it. Oh, it's for the other people. Oh, I'll take the crumbs that fall from the table.
I wonder, what kind of faith do you have? Do you have the disciples kind of faith where there is no bread, and what are we going to do, and how is it going to work? Or do you have the faith of this Syrophoenician woman who can't even see any bread, but she knows Jesus has it, and she's not going to stop asking until he gives it to her.
Let's get this down for point number one: “The kingdom is seized by faith.” The kingdom is seized by faith. What did Jesus say? The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Put your faith in the Gospel. Have you heard the good news that Jesus is the Christ, that he died on the cross for your sins, that on the third day he rose from the grave, that he was seen by over five hundred witnesses, that he fulfilled all the prophecies, that he's at the right hand of God, ready to return and reign and establish a kingdom? Have you heard the report about Jesus? Then believe it, then fall down and know who he is. I know the one who has the bread of life. I know the way. I know the truth, and I'm not going to stop asking until he gives it to me. Or you can go through life wondering, oh, no, what are we going to do? We have no bread. Is that how you're living your life? Are you confident that he has the bread and you're asking him for it and you're seizing it? Or are you like, I don't know what we're going to do this time. I wonder how we'll make it through this time.
Guys, see, there's a contrast that Mark is developing. This is what a lot of the gospel writers like to do. Matthew Mark, Luke, John, they like to highlight that sometimes faith comes from the places you might not expect. Gentile territory. This woman, she's not really even been with Jesus. She's just heard about Jesus. Yet this woman comes in with the kind of faith that Jesus himself says. That's great faith. Jesus wants this woman to keep asking him. He wants this woman to say, no, give me the crumbs. He is pleased with her faith. Is Jesus pleased with your faith?
Do you have a faith to see things not as they are, but as God says they are, not what you see with your eyes, but what you read in the Scripture? Do you live your life based on the words of Jesus or your own feelings and circumstances? This woman, she came, and Jesus says, because of what you said, your daughter, that demon is gone, and he answered her prayer because she prayed with faith.
Now let's go to the second miracle that happens here. Go back to Mark, chapter 7. Look at verse 31 and we're going to continue our tour here through the Gentile territory. And it says in verse 31, I'm going to read all the way to verse 37. Now, our second miracle. It says.
Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 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, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Okay, so let's go back to our map, and let's see that we were up there in Tyre talking to the woman who had great faith. Well, then we went up even further to Sidon, and then when we came down towards the Sea of Galilee, we came down on the right side, as you're looking on the map, where you can see the Decapolis is so it's up to the left of the Sea of Galilee, that's all Israel, but to the right of the Sea of Galilee, that's foreign territory. The Decapolis is a name for ten cities, ten Greek-speaking cities, ten gentile cities that are on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So, we've kind of taken this big roundabout tour. Must have taken Jesus and the disciples a long time to go up to Tyre and Sidon and all the way back around where they would go to the Decapolis. And so, when they enter this region of the Decapolis, maybe you remember that there was a man who was possessed by a legion of demons when they were in the Decapolis before, and Jesus cast out the legion of demons into the pigs, and he sent the man to go tell the ten cities of the Decapolis what he had done for them. Well, apparently the man did a bit of a good job, because now, when Jesus comes to the Decapolis again, people are ready for him. And there's a group here, they have a friend who is deaf, meaning he can't hear, and he has a speech impediment, which is a unique way of saying that he's mute, he can't speak. So, he can't hear and he can't speak. But the people hear that Jesus is coming through, and Jesus, who always is trying to keep it on the hush hush, everybody seems to know when he's around. And so, these friends, they bring their friend who is deaf and has this speech impediment, and they start begging Jesus. We know about you. We've heard about you. If you will just touch him, if you will just lay your hands on him, we believe that he will be healed.
And so, we've already cast a demon out of this woman's daughter. Well, here's the second miracle. Now we need you to heal our friend because he can't hear and he can't speak. Now people get really confused about what Jesus does here. Let's really think this through, because in verse 33 it says, Jesus takes this man aside from the crowd that's already gathering here, and he takes him aside privately. Now I want you to think about this from the man's perspective. This man cannot hear and this man cannot speak. And so, what does Jesus do? Well, I love what happens here, when you really think about it. He puts his finger, look at it there in verse 33. He puts his finger into his ears. Okay? That's like saying when you put your finger into his ears and then take your finger back out, he's like, showing him I'm going to remove the blockage in your ears. And then when he puts some spit and he and he touches his tongue, he's like, hey, I'm going to remove the fact that your tongue is stopped, and I'm going to help you fix your tongue. And then what does he do? He looks up to heaven, and he sighs like, who's the one who's going to fix your ears and fix your tongue? Well, it's God, because God what? He cares about you. He's speaking to this man who can't speak in here. He's showing him, I'm going to fix your ears, I'm going to fix your mouth. And it's God in heaven who cares about you, what a beautiful sign language that Jesus gives to this man. And then you can see here, he says this Aramaic word, and Mark gives us the translation “Be opened.” And, all of a sudden, the man can hear, the man can speak. And Jesus is like, let's keep this private. Let's keep this between us. And they're like, we're telling everybody, this is amazing. The deaf can hear. The mute can speak. Jesus does all things well. Jesus, he can make it well, is what they're saying. And the reputation of Jesus spreads throughout the Decapolis.
Now, that's an amazing miracle, but I think that when Mark uses this phrase, if you go back to verse 32 where it says, “had a speech impediment,” if you could circle that underline that, that's a unique word. It's not the typical word that you might use for someone who is mute and unable to speak. In fact, this is the only time that it is used in the Greek New Testament, and it's used one time in what is known as the Septuagint. So, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Septuagint, but the scriptures of the Jews were written in Hebrew but then later on, they were translated into Greek. And so, when they translated the Hebrew Scriptures, what we would call today the Old Testament, the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, when they translated that into Greek in the Septuagint, guess what? This phrase is used one time in Isaiah 35, verse 6. And I think that Mark might be using intentionally the same word as Isaiah 35:6, to draw our attention back to this prophecy that Jesus is now fulfilling when the deaf can hear and the mute can speak.
So, I need everybody grab your Bible and go back with me to Isaiah, chapter 35, and look with me at this verse that I think Mark is intentionally quoting, a unique word choice. And what's amazing about the Scripture is, if you want a preview of the future kingdom of God, you've got to turn back into the prophecies of God. And the prophets of God describe a coming time when things will be different for God's people. In fact, this is what they say here in Isaiah 35, let me read for you verses 5 and 6. Verse 6, where it says the tongue of the mute, is the same Greek phrase as what we just read that he had an impediment in his speech. So let me read Isaiah 35:5-6. “Then in this future time, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man,” the man who can't walk. “then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for water breaks forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” You see, wow, there's going to be a future day when all the people who have these physical challenges, they can't see, they can't hear, they can't walk, they can't speak, yeah, that won't happen in the future, all the deaf, they'll be able to hear. The mute, they'll be able to speak. In fact, when you think of a place that's dry and it's hot and it's dead, like the wilderness, like the desert, it won't be like that. In the future. There will be rivers and streams in the desert. So when Jesus does this healing, can you imagine that if you had a friend that you cared about, that you loved, and they can't hear you, and they can't speak to you, and you hear the report that someone can heal disease, someone can heal people's physical bodies, and you bring your friend, and then Jesus puts his finger in his ear, and Jesus spits and touches his tongue. And Jesus looks up to heaven and sighs, and he says in Aramaic “to be opened.” And all of a sudden, who knows how many years it's been, your friend is hearing you speak. Your friend is speaking back to you. Can you imagine the joy of these people as they run around saying, Jesus does it well? Jesus made it so well. And see Isaiah 35 is saying, yeah, it's going to be like that all the time in the kingdom. There are not going to be these physical challenges. In fact, not only can he heal our bodies, he can heal our land.
Let's get the full context here. Go back to Isaiah 35, verse 1, where it says, “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, even the earth is going to rejoice. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crock is. It shall blossom abundantly. It shall rejoice with joy and singing the glory of Lebanon.” And that's where Tyre and Sidon are. That's the nation to the north of Israel. Lebanon, known for its cedars, for its impressive trees, well, no, it's going to be like that in the desert. There's going to be these impressive trees, the majesty of Carmel, which is this mount, this highest point in Israel. “They shall see the glory of Yahweh, the majesty of our God. So strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, he will come, and he will save you.” And everybody who's blind will see, and all the deaf will hear, and all the lame, they will leap for joy. And the people who are mute, they will shout and sing his praise. And then “The water,” keep going with me in verse 6, “The waters break forth in the wilderness, the streams in the desert, the burning sand, oh, it'll be like a pool the thirsty ground. It'll be bursting forth springs of water in the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there. It shall be called The Way of Holiness and the unclean, they're not going to pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on The Way, even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and they will come to Zion with singing everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Do you realize that in the kingdom of Jesus, the world will not be the way that it is today? The world today is prone towards complaining. It's prone towards discouragement, but no, in this kingdom, it's not like that. There are no threats of these beasts coming to attack you on your journey. No, you're going on The Way, and there are streams alongside you, and there's grass under your feet, and he's prepared a whole way for people to come, and they're shouting and they're singing, and they have joy and gladness because they're in the kingdom.
The kingdom will be so different than the way life is now. What they're saying is he can make all things well. He does all things well. That should take you all the way back to when God made everything that has been made, and he looked at all that he had made, what did God say about what he had made? He said that it was what? “It was good.” And then there was the deception of Satan, and then there was the fall into sin. And then there was a curse on the earth, a curse that exists to this very day, but not in the kingdom, not when Jesus comes. The people who can't hear, they hear. And the people who can't speak, they speak. In the deserts, they become rivers and the dry, hot ground, it's full of green rushes and reeds, is what it says. And people are all coming to see the King, and they're all bursting forth in song, the redeemed of the Lord. They love to worship him in his Kingdom. When Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom, he will make all things well.
Let's get that down for number two: “The kingdom is life made well.” The kingdom is life made well. And when you and I study these miracles that Jesus does, they're not supposed to be like a way to look back into history and be like, wow, Jesus did amazing things when he was here a long time, two thousand years ago. Know these miracles that Jesus does, they're meant to be previews of Kingdom attractions. Like, yeah, people won't have physical problems. If there's something wrong with your body, Jesus can heal it. In fact, the redeemed, the resurrected, we're going to get new bodies in the kingdom. In fact, he's not even just going to heal bodies, he's going to heal the land. He's going to heal the geography. He's going to protect us from all threats of evil and provide for us abundantly. We'll just be walking along, and there'll be fruit we can eat. There'll be fish we can catch in these rivers and streams. What an exciting time it will be in the kingdom where joy will be the common thing, and gladness will be our shared experience. And that little glimpse of how those people felt, running around after Jesus, healed their friend, that's every day in his kingdom.
See, do you ever look forward with longing and pray, Lord, let your kingdom come. I can't wait to see what Jesus will do when he returns. If you were impressed by the miracles of Jesus when he came the first time in his humility, imagine how impressed you will be when he returns in all of his glory to show us who he really is and to establish his kingdom. And so, Mark wants to show you, look what he's doing, the deaf or hearing, the muter speaking. That's supposed to make you think of these prophecies of a time and a place that you definitely want to be in, and it hasn't happened yet. It's still yet to come, the kingdom of God.
Now go back to Mark, chapter 8. Let's get to this third miracle. Okay, we've seen a woman who's had great faith, and we see people running around saying, he can make it well. He can do it well. So, we see that the kingdom is seized by faith, and we see the kind of quality of life that people will experience in the kingdom of our Lord. But then in those days, it says in Mark, chapter 8, verses 1 to 10. And I just want to read these verses for you here. It says, “In those days when, again, a great crowd had gathered.” So, you can imagine, now we're down in the Decapolis, this man who had a legion of demons cast out of him, he's already spread the word. But now there's a fresh reason that they're spreading the word, because Jesus heals this man and so in at that time, and I think this is still happening in the Decapolis, these ten Gentile cities in that area, kind of out in the middle between some of these cities.
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Here we have another miraculous feeding of thousands of people, where we somehow multiply just a few loaves of bread and just a few small fish to feed thousands. And a lot of people wonder, what's the significance of the seven baskets left over? Well, I think the significance is that's how many loaves of bread they began with, was seven loaves of bread, and then they end up with seven leftover baskets at the end, showing how Jesus, he is the Great Shepherd who can feed God's sheep. That's what we learned when he fed the five thousand men, not counting the women and children. Well, now he's at it again. But see, here's the difference. Same miracle, different people, different place. We're not reaching out now to the lost sheep of Israel. No, now we're out here, and notice, I think, something very significant that Jesus says, we already commented on the lack of faith of the disciples. We'll get to their lack of faith in full next week, if you come back. But I want to draw your attention to what Jesus says in verses 2 and 3 as he sets up this miracle. Notice how he says, I have compassion on the crowd. I feel the hunger of the crowd. I feel the pain of the crowd. I feel the lostness of the crowd. That's what compassion is. We already learned that if you go back to chapter 6, verse 34, that's what he said before when he fed the five thousand in his previous miracle when he went ashore. This is Mark 6:34. “He saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”
So, compassion is when you can feel other people's pain within your own self. And Jesus, he's feeling for this great crowd who's come from all over the Decapolis to want to see him. And this is amazing to me. It says they have been there for three days. He says, “I feel their hunger. I feel their pain, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way, like they've had this time where Jesus has been teaching them. Who knows what other kinds of miracles he's done among them. But he cares about their physical needs. He's like, we can't just send them home. They need food to eat so they'll have the strength to go home. And then Jesus says this at the end of verse 3, he says, “And some of them have come from far away,” they have come from far off, you could say. So, what kind of people are we talking about, the people who are far off. See, this is a common distinction used in the Scripture when you wanted to distinguish between the Jew and the Gentile, like in Ephesians, chapter 2, the Jews are those who are near, and the Gentiles are those who are far off or far away. Why does Jesus do this same miracle twice? Well, one time he does it to show God's love for his chosen people of Israel. And then one time he does it to show God's love for those who come from far away. In fact, that's what Peter ends up preaching. And when he preaches the gospel in Jerusalem, the first sermon of the church in Acts 2, he says, this promise of Jesus, this promise of the gospel, it's for you, it's for your children, and it's even for those who are far off.
So, I think this is another key phrase that Mark wrote down for us, that Jesus said when we're talking about those who are far away, we're referring to the Gentiles. And it's bringing up this question that I think these three miracles that Mark included in Gentile territory, are meant to make us think is, who did Jesus come to save? Did he just come to save the Jews? Or is Jesus the Savior of the whole world? Is Jesus the Savior of the nations? And so, I think when he says, “These people came from far away,” this is also another quote from Isaiah, chapter 49. If everybody can turn back to Isaiah 49, you will see this idea of people who come from afar. In fact, Isaiah 49 is a prophecy written for those who come from afar, written for those who are not there in the Promised Land, among the chosen nation.
So, we do have some Jews that we're very blessed to have who believe in Jesus here at our church, but many of us are Gentiles here at our church. We don't come from the line of Israel, going all the way back to Abraham. We might be sons and daughters of Abraham by our faith, but not by our physical lineage. And so, we would then be these people from afar. And look at how Isaiah 49, verse 1 says, “Listen to me O coastlands.” And they would often use the coastlands to describe the people who are far away, who are the opposite side of the world from Jerusalem, from Israel, people like us way over here in California, in Huntington Beach. “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, ‘You are my servant.’”
So Isaiah 49 is one of these Servant Songs in the epic book of prophecy. That is the book of Isaiah. And there is a debate that rages to this very day between Jewish scholars and rabbis who say that the servant is the nation of Israel itself, and then Bible scholars, or Christian scholars, who would say, no, the servant is Jesus. And there's a lot of debate. To this very day, people are still debating how to interpret this passage. Let's read it together. Let's see what it says. Who is this servant that Yahweh is calling and that the people from afar need to hear about? It says in verse 3, “he said to me, ‘You are my servant Israel.’” So you can see right there. Oh, the servant is Israel. It's the nation, it's those people in whom I will be glorified. But look at what it says. “But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.’ And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him.”
Now, whenever you read Jacob in these prophecies or in the Psalms, right? It's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but then God gave Jacob another name. What was the name that God gave to Jacob? Israel. So, when you read Jacob, it's just another way to say Israel in these passages. So, notice what it says here, “to bring Jacob back to him, that Israel might be gathered to him.” See, that's where the idea that Israel is the servant doesn't work, because the point of the servant is to bring Israel back to Yahweh. See, so he's going to bring Israel back to Yahweh. But keep reading here. It says, “For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength. It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
So, you see what God's saying to this servant, to the one he gave the name Jesus, which is Savior. He's saying, you’re not only going to bring back my people in Jacob, in Israel, but I'm going to make you a light to all people, to the nation. So, you're going to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. You're going to bring salvation to the people who are far off. And that's why Mark has Jesus making this tour entire inside and ending up in the Decapolis and doing the feeding miracle all over again. Because what does Mark want everybody here to see? There is no distinction among peoples. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And see, the Jewish people, they were so blessed to be chosen by God, to be the nation loved by God, they let that puff them up, and they began to believe they were supposed to be a light to the nations, but they began to believe that they were better than the other nations. And so there would have been, it seems bad to say it out loud, but there would have been this real thought that we're better than these other people because we're with God and they're not. I wonder, has that thought crept into your mind?
See a lot of people at church, they act like there are other people who are too far off. And it could be people of other nations, other countries, other parts of the world, where they believe other things, or it could just be particular individuals, you know, family members, people you grew up with. Oh, that person, they're just too far. And I'm one of the people over here who gets to know about God, and they're just far gone. That's how the Jews thought about the Gentiles. That's how a lot of church people think about other people. That's not the way the kingdom works. We're supposed to be a light to all people. The Jews, unfortunately, they had the light and they kept it to themselves. Are you keeping the light to yourself, or do you believe that Jesus came to save everyone without distinction, that anyone could be saved, and it doesn't matter where they grew up, it doesn't matter if they're a male or female. It doesn't matter what they have believed or what their background is. They could hear the good news of Jesus, and they could be saved by the power of his death and his resurrection.
So, let's get this down for number three: “The kingdom is available to all.” The kingdom is available to all. And that's why Jesus says, no, we’ve got to feed these folks, because they came from afar. See, Jesus is really showing us something here that he came first to the children of Israel. But he's also going to give crumbs to that woman. He's also going to heal this man from the Decapolis. He's also going to feed the crowd of Gentiles, just like he would feed the crowd of Jews.
And so, I just wonder in your prayers if there are people that you have written off. I wonder if there are parts of the world that you don't think Jesus is going to reach with the gospel. I wonder if there's even somebody that you have given up on here today and you need to hear Jesus say, no, no, no. We care about those who come from far away, from far off. That's who he came for. And in fact, let's keep going here in Isaiah 49. Let's keep going where it says, “Thus says, Yahweh.” So, we're picking it up where Jesus is a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And that's the mission we've been given here in Huntington Beach. We're here to make disciples of all what everybody nations. We're here to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus to all nations, no matter what background, what lineage. We want to shine the light of Jesus and tell them about his salvation. Look what it goes on to say from Yahweh here in verse 7, “Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel and his holy one.” So, I just want to show you that here in Isaiah, there are two beings addressed here, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy Anointed One,” his Christ. Notice the two of them are being addressed, and it says to one, this Christ, this holy one, the one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers, “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
“Thus says the Lord: ‘In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has’” what on them, everybody? Pity, which is another way you could say compassion. Jesus is announcing, before he miraculously feeds four thousand people, that I have compassion on those from afar. And what is it prophesying here that this one who comes and feeds the people, he will have pity on them. “He who has pity on them will lead them by springs of water. He will guide them. And I will make all my mountains of road, and my highway shall be raised up. Behold these shall come from afar and behold these from the north and from the West, and these from the land of Syene.” Look at all the directions they're going to come from to be in the kingdom of God.
And if the kingdom is truly available, when we get there, and we get to see Jesus in his glory, and he clothes us as his people, in our white robes, and we become like Jesus when we see him as he is. We will be made like him, and we will worship Jesus together. We will shout, the songs we will sing, the joy and gladness we will experience. It will be people of every nation, of every tribe, of every tongue, all worshiping one savior in Jesus. And the good news is that if the kingdom is available to all, that means it's available to you, that you could be in this kingdom. So many people that I meet, they think it's not for me. I'm too far gone. I've sinned too much; I've rejected the truth too much. I've known the way I should go, and I didn't walk in it. It's not about how far you've gone. It's about how far he's willing to go, and he's coming for those who are far off. He came for his own people. He came for all people. He came for you. And if you're making some excuse as to why you can't be one of the people of the kingdom of Jesus, well he's going after the Gentile woman, and he's going after the person who can't speak or hear, and he's going after the crowd that everybody else has written off.
But he's going after the ones from afar, and they can come from every possible direction. He's creating the highways for them to come. He's providing the way for them to come. No, you could be in the kingdom of God if you repent and believe in the good news that Jesus came and died and rose again for you. You could be there experiencing this gladness, seeing this generous provision man. Let me just tell you that if you don't go to Israel with us next summer, if you believe in Jesus, you will go to Israel, and you will see his kingdom, and you will think, this is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I'm so glad that I get to be here in his kingdom. And people will say, well, where did you come from? Oh, I came from Huntington Beach. I came from California. They'll be like, wow, you came from far away. You came from the ends of the earth. You Gentile. And they'll be like, welcome into the kingdom. Wow. That's awesome that you're here.
That's what will happen. That's what these miracles are meant to help us see that there are no limits to who Jesus came for and that includes you. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we thank you for your heart to love the people of Israel, to love the Jews, but also to love the nations, to love those who are far off. And we thank you for this woman who came with great faith to Jesus, and was ready to get the crumbs of the bread of his life. We, thank you for these people in Decapolis who saw Jesus make all things well, and as they went around shouting what Jesus is doing, it's like they were announcing what it's going to be like in the kingdom. We thank you for this second feeding where Jesus is not just doing the same miracle again, but he's doing it for those who are far away, for the people that have come from these Greek speaking Gentile nations, and he's showing that he's your servant. And yes, he came to bring Jacob back. He came to bring Israel back, but he also came for us, for everyone, for the Gentiles, too. And so, God, I just pray for anybody in this room right now trying to think, well, he didn't come for me. I pray that they would see him there sharing the bread with these four thousand, saying that he definitely did come for those who are far. And I pray that nobody would leave here thinking Jesus didn't come for them, and that everyone would leave here thinking, I want to be a part of his kingdom. God, I pray that this week, when we feel like we have no bread, that we will all know that Jesus has it. And if we could just get the crumbs that would fall from his table. If we could just run to Jesus this week and keep asking and keep begging and keep falling before Him, Jesus, I know who you are. You are the way. You are the truth. You are the life of Jesus. I want you to give it to me. I need it. I pray that we would have that great faith of this woman who wouldn't let Jesus go until he gave her the life that she needed for her daughter. I pray that we would teach us to be people who have great faith, that we would believe that Jesus, he is the one who is able to make all things well he can do it, and that we would trust in him for our salvation. So, God, please let us now in our hearts, pray and thank Jesus for what he's done for us. Let us now run to Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.