More Than a Healing

[0:00] Last week we saw Jesus honor the faith of a Gentile woman by removing a demon from the woman's daughter.

[0:17] ! In tonight's passage, Jesus and his disciples change locations, but Jesus again shows compassion to Gentiles.! Let's read Mark chapter 7, verses 31 through 37.

[0:30] That will take us to the end of the chapter. Speaking about Jesus, Mark wrote, Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

[0:42] 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.

[0:56] And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

[1:09] 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.

[1:21] He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. This passage returns to a familiar theme that we've seen earlier in the Gospel of Mark.

[1:32] Mark uses a miracle healing to show that Jesus' actions are about more than a healing. The healing of the deaf and mute man demonstrates Jesus' deity and fulfills Old Testament prophecy.

[1:45] That's the main idea of the passage. The healing of the deaf and mute man demonstrates Jesus' deity and fulfills Old Testament prophecy. Verse 31 tells us that this passage takes place in the region of the Decapolis.

[2:02] Decapolis means ten cities. And this miracle, recorded only by Mark, would be especially appreciated by Roman readers because the ten cities region was like a Rome away from Rome.

[2:15] Earlier in Mark, we've seen Jesus minister in the Decapolis area. Flip back to Mark chapter 5. We'll look at a few verses in Mark chapter 5 to refresh our memory.

[2:27] Starting with verses 1 through 4, here are Mark chapter 5, verses 1 through 4. 1 through 5, verse 1 through 5.

[3:02] Then in Mark 5, verses 9 through 13, we learn that the man had more than one demon inside him. The spokesperson demon said that his name was Legion, for we are many. The demon talking to Jesus then begged Jesus to send the demons into a nearby pig herd.

[3:19] Jesus allowed that request. We remember that the pigs ran off a cliff, fell into water, and then drowned. And now look at Mark chapter 5, verses 14 through 20.

[3:30] The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had the Legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

[3:48] And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with the demons begged him that he might be with him.

[4:04] And he did not permit him, but said to him, Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.

[4:20] And everyone marveled. When we studied the Mark chapter 5 passage, we talked about how the formerly demon-possessed man was an early missionary.

[4:32] He obviously did his job well. At the end of chapter 5, the people in the Decapolis begged Jesus to leave. In our passage tonight, at the end of chapter 7, Jesus got a much different reception.

[4:46] People were eager to see him. We'll break Mark chapter 7, verses 31 through 37 into three sections, starting with verses 31 and 32.

[4:57] And in verses 31 and 32, we see the insistent crew. So the insistent crew is your first set of blanks. Look at verse 31 of Mark chapter 7 again.

[5:11] Then he, of course, that's Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. Jesus now takes a long journey.

[5:24] He goes north through Sidon and then southeast to the Decapolis on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. This is about a 120-mile journey. It's an indirect route.

[5:36] It's more of a semicircle. And he's staying in Gentile territory here. Last week, we saw the Canaanite woman remind Jesus that even the Gentiles, whom Jesus called little dogs or puppies in his short parable, received crumbs from the master's table.

[5:54] Although Jesus' primary mission was to the Jews, Gentiles who expressed proper faith in Jesus also received salvation. Mark omitted the specific reason why Jesus chose such an indirect route.

[6:08] Regardless of the reason for the journey, this journey allows more dogs to receive valuable crumbs from the master's table. Listen to how Matthew summarized this portion of Jesus' ministry.

[6:21] Here are Matthew chapter 15, verses 29 through 31. Matthew 15, verses 29 through 31 say, Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee.

[6:35] And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others.

[6:46] And they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel.

[7:02] You can see that Matthew gave us the high-level overview of what happened when Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee. Mark chose to focus on just one of many healings that Jesus did here.

[7:13] And Mark is the only gospel to tell us about the person whom we meet in Mark chapter 7, verse 32. Here is Mark chapter 7, verse 32.

[7:27] 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. The man's deafness was likely congenital or long-term, without being able to hear as a child.

[7:45] He was unable to learn how to speak, thereby resulting in a severe speech impediment. In that world, no remedies existed for such a condition. Those suffering from such physical impairments were ostracized by society.

[8:00] Even in Israel, deaf people, because of their hearing loss and speech defects, were generally regarded as mentally handicapped. Adding insult to injury, the Jews incorrectly alleged that disabilities, like deafness or blindness, were always the direct result of God's judgment for sin.

[8:19] Because this man lived in a pagan society rather than Israel, the ill treatment and disdain he endured likely were even worse. Mark's description of the malady that afflicted this man does not come across as powerfully in English as it does in the original language.

[8:37] When Mark tells us that the man had a speech impediment, he uses a Greek word, megillolos, that means he had a severe difficulty in speaking. His difficulty was such that people could not discern the words that he was saying.

[8:54] The man's difficulty in being understood would have contributed to the perception that he also was mentally handicapped. Like the Canaanite lady we met last week, this poor man would have had several things working against him.

[9:08] He also was a Gentile. He was unable to hear, and his lack of hearing made it extremely hard to communicate. Most people would have thought of him as someone who had very little to contribute to society.

[9:24] The man, however, did have at least one thing going for him. The man had friends who had heard about the healing power of Jesus. Those friends formed the insistent crew, and that crew was willing to fight through the crowd to get their friend to Jesus.

[9:39] The last part of verse 32 says that those friends begged Jesus to lay his hand on the man. The verb beg there means to implore or to entreat with a sense of urgency.

[9:52] So in desperation, they pled on behalf of their friend who could not speak for himself that Jesus would enable him to hear. Some commentators criticize the deaf man's friends because those friends seem to think that Jesus must put his hands on the deaf man before the man's hearing can be restored.

[10:12] Those commentators say that the deaf man's friend should have known that Jesus could heal from a distance, just like we saw Jesus do last week for the Canaanite woman's daughter. But that criticism is wrong.

[10:25] The healing of the Canaanite woman's daughter had been done many miles away from the Decapolis. We have to remember that the Decapolis lacked CNN, Fox News, or even a daily newspaper to summarize what had happened.

[10:38] Rather than criticizing the man's friends, those friends should have been commended for their faith because they showed more faith in Jesus than most of the Jews did. Also, consider this.

[10:51] Jesus often laid his hands on people to visibly and tangibly demonstrate his power to the sufferers. Unlike the Pharisees and scribes who considered themselves to be above the common people, Jesus gladly mingled with the crowds and willingly extended his touch toward those in need.

[11:09] Doing so displayed his and heaven's tender compassion and personal care, and it also demonstrated that Jesus was not afraid of ceremonial defilement. Jesus was never defiled by those whom he touched, whether it was a leper, a woman with a hemorrhage of blood, a dead body, or a Gentile man who suffered from deafness.

[11:29] Rather than Jesus being corrupted by them, they were cleansed and restored by Jesus. In our next section, we'll see another instance of Jesus restoring someone.

[11:42] Now that we've seen the insistent crew, let's move on to the second section of the lesson. Verses 33 through 35 document the impressive cure.

[11:53] So the impressive cure is your second set of blanks. Listen to Mark chapter 7 verses 33 through 35 one more time.

[12:03] Verse 33 begins by telling us that Jesus took the deaf man, aside.

[12:35] With many others waiting to be healed, Jesus gave his attention to one desperate man who had surely been ignored and neglected throughout his life. For as long as the man could probably remember, he had been scorned, ostracized, and despised.

[12:51] But in that moment, he received the undivided attention and compassion of the creator himself. Can you imagine the different emotions that must have been running through the deaf man's mind at this point?

[13:04] The man had to have been wondering whether being pulled aside like this would turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing. The man probably was apprehensive because he likely had few experiences in his life where being singled out like this turned out to be a good thing.

[13:21] The deaf man's friends knew that Jesus was capable of healing the man. However, we don't know whether those friends had been able to communicate that possibility to the deaf man himself.

[13:32] Look again at how verse 33 ends. The end of verse 33 shows considerable compassion on Jesus' part. Jesus put his fingers into the deaf man's ears and after spitting, touched his tongue.

[13:46] If someone walks up to you today, puts his fingers in your ears, spits, and then touches that spittle to your tongue, you probably would consider those actions to be very rude and insulting.

[13:59] And you might even have that person arrested for assault. So why then do we think that Jesus' actions show considerable compassion when he does the same things here? Jesus was using heavenly sign language.

[14:13] Jesus was telling the man that Jesus would address the problem with the man's hearing and the problem with the man's speech. Look at the first part of verse 34 now. That first part of verse 34 gives us two more instances of heavenly sign language.

[14:29] It says, And looking up to heaven, he, that's Jesus, sighed. Jesus is neither indifferent nor unfeeling. He sighs and feels the pain before bringing the healing and the joy.

[14:43] So here we see power, love, and tender attention. So think about the tender mercy of Jesus that we see here. Healing would have been mercy enough, but Jesus stoops down to minister to the special needs of this man.

[14:58] He sees the need, but he also sees the man. He doesn't see a problem. He sees a person. So let's put all the instances of heavenly sign language together.

[15:10] In an act of profound kindness, Jesus used four specific signs to make his point. First, he put his fingers into both of the deaf man's ears to indicate that he recognized the man's physical problem.

[15:25] Jesus understood that the deaf man was not stunned mentally or possessed by demons, as some may have thought. The man simply couldn't hear. The Lord used a symbolic gesture to demonstrate that he had rightly diagnosed the medical issue.

[15:39] Second, after spitting, Jesus touched the man's tongue with Jesus' saliva. So Jesus again employed a physical gesture to identify the man's speech disability.

[15:53] Though Jesus used saliva in his healing on two other occasions, it obviously had no power on its own. However, ancient people generally believed that saliva had healing properties.

[16:05] The deaf man would have understood that Jesus' use of saliva meant that he intended to heal him. Third, looking up to heaven, Jesus demonstrated that the creative power he exercised came from God.

[16:20] Even as a pagan, the man would have understood what Jesus meant by gazing toward heaven. Fourth, by giving a deep sigh, the Lord communicated a sincere sympathy for the long agonies of this man's disability.

[16:33] An honest groaning visibly projected pain and heartache on the man's behalf. Using nonverbal communication, the Lord Jesus taught this man about God's power and God's compassion.

[16:48] The Son of God, Jesus of course, would heal him with power that came from above because Jesus cared deeply about him. The end of verse 34 and all of verse 35 tell us about what happened next.

[17:02] Picking up from where we left off in verse 34, Jesus said to him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were open, his tongue released, and he spoke plainly.

[17:17] So the man's ears are open and he speaks plainly and clearly. Literally there, the original language could be translated, the chain of his tongue was broken. The chain that had kept him in the bondage of silence is broken.

[17:31] And we see that Jesus came to bring liberty for every kind of captive. The extent of the miracle went beyond merely repairing the man's physical faculties.

[17:44] He could hear sounds and he was able to understand and articulate words without needing any linguistic training or speech therapy. The word plainly comes from the Greek word orthos, meaning straight or right.

[17:56] It's where we get our English medical terms orthopedics and orthodontics. In an instant, the one who created the world and upholds the universe by the word of his power supernaturally enabled this man to hear and to speak fluently.

[18:12] Like every miracle Jesus performed, this healing was an act of divine creative energy through his word, the same way he had made the universe in the beginning. We could easily overlook the second part of the miracle, the part where the man immediately could speak and understand language.

[18:31] However, this second part is at least as impressive as the man suddenly being able to hear. We also need to see something else from our verses up to this point.

[18:43] In a very real sense, the healing of the man's deafness and speech impediment is a picture of what happens to every Christian. Before the Holy Spirit opens us to the things of God, we are as deaf to the word of God as this poor man was deaf to all verbal communication.

[19:00] Until the Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts and regenerates our souls, our tongues practice deceit and according to Romans 3.13, the venom of asp is under our lips so that our tongues can only blaspheme.

[19:14] God sets us free from these afflictions by the regenerating power of his Holy Spirit. For a biblical example of that, we need to look no further than the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

[19:27] God changed Saul from being a blasphemer of God who zealously persecuted Christians to being the person we now know as the Apostle Paul. And of course, you can read about that conversion in Acts chapter 9.

[19:41] So far, we've seen the insistent crew and the impressive cure. In the final two verses of our passage tonight, we see the ignored commands.

[19:52] So the ignored commands is your last set of blanks. Check out Mark chapter 7 verses 36 and 37 again.

[20:02] 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.

[20:17] He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. The first question we may have about these verses is, to whom does the pronoun them refer?

[20:29] Well, the them obviously would refer to the now formerly deaf man and his friends. It also likely refers to anyone else who witnessed the miracle and who saw the transformation in the formerly deaf man.

[20:42] No doubt, the man's reaction was one of exuberant joy. Naturally, his instant impulse was to tell everyone what had happened. But Jesus instructed him and his friends to keep quiet, and that would be an immense restraint considering such an experience that he'd just been through.

[21:00] But Jesus charged them to tell no one. Charged is from the Greek, and it refers to a command, and Jesus commanded this man to remain quiet. And that may sound strange, not only because he had just given the man the ability to speak, but also because the Lord had earlier told the Gerasene demoniac to do the exact opposite.

[21:22] We read about that when we read Mark chapter 5, verses 19 through 20. So why did Jesus tell the demoniac in chapter 5 to spread the news of his healing, yet Jesus now tells the formerly death man to keep quiet about his own healing?

[21:38] Well, here's the likely answer. An important difference existed between the former demoniac and the formerly death and mute man. The former demoniac was the first missionary to that Gentile area, but now, largely through that man's witness, the news about Jesus' miracle working power was well known throughout the region and it resulted in widespread euphoria.

[22:03] The situation had reached epic proportions due to the unbridled enthusiasm of the unwieldy crowds. And as in Galilee, the Lord had no desire to add fuel to the fire of their inherently materialistic and political expectations about Jesus.

[22:22] Many whom Jesus healed knew him primarily as a miracle worker and some merely as just a miracle worker, but Jesus had come for a far more glorious purpose.

[22:33] A message that highlighted only his miraculous healings would be inadequate. The full message about Jesus must include the truth that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

[22:51] And of course that comes from 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4. Mark reiterated that Jesus' true identity could not be understood until after his crucifixion and resurrection.

[23:05] The end of verse 36 seems to indicate that even before the man, his friends, and others who saw the miracle left the presence of Jesus, they already were ignoring Jesus' command.

[23:17] Look at the last sentence of verse 36 again. It says, But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. Consider something else here.

[23:30] Even this last sentence of verse 36 points us back to Jesus' compassion. As God himself, Jesus knew that the people would ignore his commands to keep silent about the healing.

[23:42] However, Jesus still healed the man anyway, despite the complications that the people's blabbing tongues would later cause. Let's move on to verse 37.

[23:54] Mark wrote the verse about the people who were ignoring Jesus' commands to be silent. It says, And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well.

[24:05] He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. Astonish translates a form of the word that we have seen several times in Mark already.

[24:16] The word means to be struck with amazement or, colloquially, to be blown out of one's mind. The people were completely awestruck and unable to contain themselves.

[24:28] So, in spite of Jesus' instruction to the contrary, they also spread the word everywhere. We do have one difference between the astonishment we see here in verse 737 and the astonishment that we have seen at earlier times.

[24:45] In verse 37, Mark says that the people were astonished beyond measure. It's almost as if Mark is telling us, I know that I keep using the same word, but it's the best I could think of to describe the situation, and this time the people were even more astonished than what I have said before.

[25:05] Let's zoom in for a minute or two on what the people here in Mark 737 said. Talking about Jesus, they said he has done all things well, he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

[25:19] He has done all things well recalls Genesis 1 verse 31, and he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak recalls Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6.

[25:31] Isaiah 35 describes the Messianic age poetically. He has done all things well, again, comes from Genesis 1 31, and it is at the end of the creation account.

[25:43] Listen to Genesis 1 31. It says, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

[25:58] Whether they realized the significance of their words or not, the people's words point us to the fact that Jesus does things that only God can do. Therefore, Jesus has to be God.

[26:10] God created a world with no deafness or muteness or cancer until sin entered in. But now the creator has stepped onto the stage of the world he created, bringing a new creation.

[26:23] Wherever he goes, he is undoing the effects of the fall. He does all things well because he is God, and wherever he goes, he is making all things new.

[26:36] R.C. Sproul said, this was the same God who created the heavens and the earth, and who, when he was finished with his creative work, saw that it was very good. What he did in creation, he did well.

[26:50] This is the same God who redeems us. When Christ carried out his work of redemption for our souls, he did it well, and in all his dealings with us, he does all things well.

[27:03] That's why we can sing from the old hymn, even in the midst of tribulation, though great distress my soul befell, the Lord my God did all things well.

[27:15] Even these Gentiles noted this about Jesus. Look at him, they said to one another. Everything he does, he does it well. The one who creates, the one who redeems, the one who opens deaf ears and loosens tongues does all things well.

[27:33] people. Remember the main idea, the healing of the deaf and mute man demonstrates Jesus' deity and fulfills Old Testament prophecy.

[27:45] You probably have noticed that, except for the brief reference to Isaiah 35, we've yet to talk about how Jesus' actions here in Mark 7, 31 through 37, fulfill Old Testament prophecy.

[27:59] Mark almost certainly wanted us to do more than make a brief reference to Isaiah 35. He almost certainly wanted us to see that Jesus' actions demonstrate the beginning of Isaiah 35's fulfillment.

[28:13] So let's see why that bold statement is true. Well, Mark chapter 7, verse 32 is the key. Listen again to part of what we discussed about that verse when we were in the first section of the passage.

[28:28] We said that Mark's description of the malady that afflicted this man does not come across as powerfully in the English as it does in the original language. When Mark tells us that the man had a speech impediment, he uses a Greek word, megillolos, that means he had a severe difficulty in speaking.

[28:47] His difficulty was such that people could not discern the words that he was saying. That was a quote from R.C. Sproul, and Sproul went on to say, the word translated speech impediment is found twice in all of the Bible, here in Mark 7, 32, and in Isaiah 35, where it appears in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is the Septuagint.

[29:12] When we turn to Isaiah 35, we observe that in the preceding chapters, Isaiah delivered oracles of doom that God had commissioned him to pronounce on Israel and her neighbors.

[29:24] Isaiah told the Israelites that the judgment of God was going to lay their land waste and that they were going to go through a period of severe desolation. We get a sense of the severity of that judgment when we read Isaiah chapter 34.

[29:39] So turn over to Isaiah chapter 34 verse 8. We'll spend some time looking at the verses in Isaiah 34 and Isaiah 35. Let's read Isaiah 34 verses 8 through 15 first.

[29:56] Here are Isaiah 34 verses 8 through 15. For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

[30:09] And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur. Her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched.

[30:20] Its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever. But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it.

[30:35] The owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it and the plumb line of emptiness. Its nobles there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing.

[30:50] Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles, and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches, and wild animals shall meet with hyenas.

[31:04] The wild goat shall cry to his fellow. Indeed, there the nightbird settles and finds for herself a resting place. There the owl nest and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow.

[31:18] Indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate. This is a graphic description of divine judgment on a land.

[31:30] Could anything be more severe than for God to take the land away from the prince and deliver that land to the jackals, the snakes, and the birds of the air? So this is the climax of a rising litany of judgment that covers several chapters in Isaiah as God lays out the destruction that he has planned for this part of the world.

[31:49] But when God gives an announcement of judgment for his people, he almost always gives a word of future hope, and that's because God never abandons his remnant to desolation.

[32:02] That word of future hope comes in Isaiah chapter 35. Listen to Isaiah chapter 35, verses 1 through 7. Isaiah 35, 1 through 7 say, The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad.

[32:20] The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

[32:35] They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong, fear not.

[32:49] Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

[33:03] Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

[33:14] The burning sand shall become like a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

[33:28] Did you spot the tie to our passage in Mark tonight? Listen again to Isaiah 35 verse 4 through the first sentence of verse 6. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not.

[33:44] Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

[33:56] Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. Here's another quote from R.C. Sproul. He said, Here in this climactic passage, when Isaiah rejoices that the tongue of the mute shall sing, we find the other appearance of the word megillolos.

[34:17] Centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God gave this message of hope to his people, looking past the destruction and desolation to the messianic age when the kingdom of God would break through and the Messiah would come.

[34:32] He promised that the Messiah would give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and that he would loosen the tongues of the mute. Surely Mark has this marvelous passage in mind as he pens the narrative of Jesus' encounter with the deaf and mute man.

[34:49] The healing powerfully connected Jesus to this messianic prophecy in Isaiah. Many commentators saw the same tie.

[35:00] Here's what John MacArthur had to say about it. Mark connected his account with the prophecy of Isaiah 35. The healings Jesus performed like the curing of a deaf man with a severe speech impediment were previews of the glories of his future messianic kingdom when death and disease will be greatly diminished.

[35:22] MacArthur went on to say while the people Jesus healed physically during his ministry were right to rejoice, their momentary exuberance cannot compare to the eternal joys that await those whom he has saved spiritually and to whom he has promised eternal glorified bodies.

[35:39] During the millennial kingdom and then forever on the new earth the redeemed will exult in the wonder of their completed salvation. The Isaiah text reiterates a principle that is repeated over and over again in the Old Testament and that is that salvation is of the Jews.

[35:59] God is working through the stiff-necked Jews to bring his redemption to the whole world. J.C. Ryle said, We only see half the teaching of this marked passage if we only regard it as an example of our Lord's divine power.

[36:16] It is such an example beyond doubt, but it is something more than that. We must look further, deeper, and lower than the surface and we will find in the passage precious spiritual truths.

[36:28] Daniel Aiken cited a quote from James Edwards and here's what Aiken said. He said, James Edwards captures the great significance of this when he writes, The illusion of Isaiah 35 is of supreme significance for Mark's presentation of Jesus, not only because the restoration of speech signals the eschatological or in times arrival of the day of the Lord, but because the desert wastelands of Lebanon will receive the joy of God.

[37:00] The regions of Tyre and Sidon are of course precisely the Lebanon of Isaiah 35. Jesus' healing in the Decapolis becomes the first fruit of the fulfillment of Isaiah 35.10 that Gentile Lebanon will join the ransom of the Lord and enter Zion with singing.

[37:19] Salvation thus comes to the Gentile word in Jesus who is God's eschatological redeemer from Zion. As we have noted before, the only categories adequate for Mark to describe the person and work of Jesus are ultimately the categories of God.

[37:36] Once again, as in the story of the Syrophoenician woman, salvation is from the Jews. We've seen at least three things in our Mark passage tonight.

[37:48] We've seen the actual events of the healing itself. Those events gave us even more proof that Jesus is God. We also have seen that the healing of the deaf and mute man gives us a physical picture of what happens to every believer when God saves the person.

[38:07] And we have seen how the Mark passage fulfills Old Testament prophecy. Listen to how John MacArthur summarized tonight's Mark passage. Bible chapter says, By healing temporal maladies, the Lord Jesus pointed people to something greater, the hope of eternal life.

[38:27] Through him, forgiveness from sin and reconciliation with God are readily available to everyone who believes the gospel, whether Jew or Gentile. Jesus is infinitely more than a miracle worker and the greatest teacher.

[38:41] He is the only Savior who died to pay the penalty for sin. He rose victoriously to demonstrate his power over death. Those who repent of their sin and believe in Jesus savingly will experience his life-giving power for all of eternity.

[38:59] Spiritually, their sinful hearts are cleansed at the moment of conversion. Physically, their bodies will one day be resurrected, never to experience disease or decay again.

[39:11] In that state of glorified perfection, free from both sin and sickness, they will forever worship their Redeemer and King. When you think about that, every believer should be willing and able to say the same thing about Jesus that we saw the people say in Mark 7, 37.

[39:30] And that is, of course, he has done all things well. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for another reminder that Jesus is God.

[39:43] and we thank you for another reminder that Jesus is more than just God. He is a God who cares about us and has compassion upon us and is willing to heal us.

[39:56] We thank you even more for the reminder of how what we see tonight fulfills Old Testament prophecy of the ultimate Redeemer who came to redeem us from our sins.

[40:07] Help us internalize this truth and be more willing to share it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.