**Transcript:**
"Hard hearts can become hardened, and that can be dangerous as well. So, the heart can have some medical issues, but the heart can also have spiritual issues, and that's what Jesus is going to address in this particular passage. So, let's go ahead and read it together."
It is good to see everyone again at Forest Hill Church and all of our campuses, as well as those who are gathered online. I recently had the privilege of accompanying my wife and the campus pastor for Fort Mill, Ray Bone, on a trip to our two partner churches in Cairo and Beirut. It was an amazing trip, my first time being in biblical countries, and there were so many wonderful sites. The most inspiring site for me was witnessing what God is doing in His church in a way that's making a significant impact in that part of the world. I'm so very glad that Forest Hill has partnered with them.
As we continue in the Gospel According to Mark, I'd like to take the time to give some kudos and gratitude to Keith Bernie from the Eastland campus, Gentry Eddings from the Valentine campus, and Mike Atkins from Waxhaw for their amazing job of pulpit and preaching ministry.
The dominant theme in this particular passage in chapter seven and into chapter eight is hard-heartedness. Jesus addresses the spiritual issues of the heart, which can be dangerous. Throughout this message, Jesus will be addressing the hardening of our heart and the plaque buildup in the arteries.
Let's go ahead and read it together. Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and entered a house. He encountered a problem of hard-heartedness, which can be detrimental to our health, both physically and spiritually. The Bible is clear that the heart is central to our being, to the core of who we are. It is essential for our affections, our devotions, our reasoning and thinking, and our compassions. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the source of life." This means that our heart determines the course of our life. How is your heart functioning? Is it tender or hard? Is it receptive to the work of God or resistant and rebellious?
Jesus encountered four expressions of hard-heartedness and gave us ways to tenderize or soften our hearts. We should stand with reverence and respect for the authority of God's word over our lives. He could not be hidden, yet he did not want anyone to know. Immediately, a Syrophoenician woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Jesus 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." She answered him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." For this statement, Jesus said she may go her way, and the demon had left her daughter. She went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Jesus then returned from the region of Tyre, went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. Taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, "Ephphatha," which means "Be opened." The man's ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 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."
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, "I have compassion on this 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." His disciples answered and said, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?" He asked them how many loaves do they have, and they said seven. He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground, took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. They ate and were satisfied. He took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and there were about four thousand people. He sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." He left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. He cautioned them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." They began discussing with one another the meaning of his words.
Jesus was at the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee, Janessaret, and then he was traveling northwest into the area of Tyre and Sidon, a predominantly Gentile area. There were tensions between the Lebanese or the ancient Phoenicians and Israel for centuries due to land and religious ethnic tensions. Jesus was intentionally breaking geographical, religious, ethnic, and gender boundaries by being in this area.
An unlikely petitioner, a Syrophoenician woman, came to Jesus. According to Orthodox Judaism, she had several strikes against her as a woman, a Gentile, an unclean Tyro-Phoenician, and a person approaching a rabbi. However, she was a determined and desperate mom who would do whatever it takes to bring help to her child.
Jesus asked his disciples why they were discussing the fact that they had no bread. He asked if they did not perceive or understand, having eyes, ears, and a memory. He reminded them of when he broke the five loaves with the five thousand and asked how many baskets full of broken pieces they took up. They said twelve. He then asked about the seven for the four thousand, and they said seven. He asked if they did not yet understand the word of the Lord and told them they may be seated.
A Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." Jesus did not answer her a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." The woman had been asking continually, pleading and asking for help, and Jesus wasn't saying anything. Finally, after a while, the disciples were like, "Lord, just, we're begging you, send the begging woman away; she's a nuisance."
Is there a possibility that maybe in the heart of the disciples, they are holding on to some nationalistic, racist tendencies as well? That these Gentiles are not really worth our time, they're not really worth the Master's time, send her away; she's not a part of our agenda, we shouldn't even be in this particular part of the world? That's what's going on with the disciples.
This woman, who was desperate for some help, came to Jesus with absolute faith that he could do something about her daughter's condition and that he had the power to do so. I mean, quite frankly, Jesus' reputation had preceded him; they'd heard about the miracles, they'd heard about the healings, they'd heard about the exorcisms, and so this mom says, "That's my answer; that's my solution; I'll do whatever is necessary," and she falls down before Jesus. Jesus doesn't say a word, according to Matthew's rendition of it. She falls down before Jesus and says, "Lord, please help me," and the disciples are begging that the woman would be kind of put away or ignored.
The issue is with the disciples. The disciples see this woman, I think, as kind of a nuisance. The best interpreter of scripture is scripture. In other words, when you find a passage that's problematic, don't just stick with that one; are there any other passages that may deal with that? For that, we'll go to Matthew's gospel, where Matthew was recording from his perspective the exact same incident. Matthew chapter 15, verse 22, it says, "Let the children be fed first, for it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
Now, it's understood that Gentiles were considered by Orthodox Jews as dogs, as unworthy as the scavenging, unclean beasts in the streets. That's how they considered them. It's a nationalistic, racist perspective about people who are not Jewish.
So, the question that we would ask is, "Okay, so in this message about hard-heartedness, is the first example Jesus actually exhibiting hard-heartedness that's a result of maybe some inherent racism or nationalism in Jesus?" And here's where I say this: our heart becomes hard when we fail to see people as Jesus does.
I've listened to people who are agnostic, anti-Christian, liberal, and progressive pastors. Through a distorted lens of their personal preferences, they have said things like Jesus needed correcting for his nationalistic or racist tendencies. This woman was speaking truth to power, as if Jesus needed to be corrected. Jesus is the one in whom the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. He is full of grace and truth and intentionally moved into this area to serve Jews first.
When the woman came to Jesus asking for help, he said nothing. Jesus was testing the faith and heart of his disciples to see what they would do. He then engaged in a conversation with the woman, saying it was not right for the bread of the children to be given to dogs. The woman responded that even they needed the crumbs that fell off the table. Jesus praised her for the quality of her faith and said her daughter had been healed.
Here's the formula: Jesus said that your daughter has been healed. In other words, while he was speaking to her, he was already addressing the situation, although not directly to the woman. God knows exactly what is going on with you, and the help that is according to his will is on its way. Jesus was wowed by the faith of a Gentile and performed a ministry that she was desperately needing for her daughter.
Sometimes we can see people through the lens of our personal preferences, priorities, agenda, and prejudices. We can disregard people thinking that they are not worth our time, effort, or investment. This is when our hearts become closed, and we fail to see people the way that Jesus does.
The disciples said Jesus should send her away, but she was specifically calling out to Jesus, not to them. The disciples could do nothing to change the situation. Jesus performed an amazing miracle for this Gentile woman, and the disciples got their minds opened.
For those of us that walk with Christ, we may be the conduits of blessing that people need. God has empowered us to address their need from his inexhaustible resources with time, material resources, compassion, and a listening ear. Rather than seeing them through our own filter, we should see people the way that Jesus sees them.
Jesus had just finished a three-day crusade in the desolate part of the Decapolis, a place with ten cities where there were a lot of Gentiles and Jews. In this particular place, there was a man who was deaf with a speech impediment. The townspeople were begging Jesus to heal him, and he did. The disciples were astonished and amazed, and they couldn't stop talking about what Jesus was doing.
Chapter 8, verse 1 says that Jesus had compassion on the people, as they had been with him for three days, and he didn't want to send them home yet. The disciples asked who on Earth could feed such a large crowd in this desolate area. Jesus had already done a similar miracle a few weeks earlier when he fed 5,000 men, women, and children with five loaves and two fishes.
The disciples had forgotten this miracle and instead asked who on Earth could take care of this particular problem. Jesus set the crowd down and distributed the bread and fish after he had blessed it. They came to try to trap him; they've come to try to shame him, and what Jesus does is he takes the problem and he turns it into an opportunity to show the power of God. The power of God is not just to solve the problem but to solve the people who are in the problem.
The disciples saw a problem, and Jesus had a plan. Sometimes God not only welcomes problems, but sometimes he creates them. Problems are opportunities for God to work his will and show his power. God will never give us more than he can handle. The Pharisees came to test Jesus and shame him publicly. Jesus took the problem and turned it into an opportunity to show the power of God. He showed that his power is not just to solve the problem but to solve the people who are in the problem. Thousands of people were satisfied with just a little bit to eat, and seven baskets of leftovers were picked up. God is sufficient and can make lives abundant with grace and humility.
Jesus and the Pharisees had come to an impasse. The Pharisees had come to demand a miraculous sign to validate Jesus' authority and ministry, but Jesus was exasperated. He said that this generation was asking for something that fulfilled their expectations, and that for those who were not willing to see what had already been given, no more signs would be coming. Jesus then got in a boat and headed to the other side.
This attitude of unbelief, rebellion, and rejection is destructive to both the people around us and to ourselves. In a few months, the Pharisees would conspire and succeed in having Jesus crucified. This same attitude can be seen in our own lives when we are unwilling to change our sinful habits, lifestyle, and attitudes. We close our hearts to the possibility of Christ leading us to a better place.
On the boat, Jesus warned his disciples to watch out for the influence of the Pharisees and Herod, as it would destroy them. The disciples, however, were thinking about their hunger, as they had only brought one loaf of bread. Jesus, however, was thinking on a larger scale and asked them why they were discussing the fact that they had no bread. He asked if they did not yet perceive or understand, and if their hearts were hardened. He reminded them to remember. Jesus was warning them to watch out for the influence of the Pharisees and Herod, as it could lead to hypocrisy, legalism, and slavery to worldly desires.
We must have tender hearts that are always receptive and always responsive to the word and work of God. First Peter 3:8 says to be of one mind, sympathize with each other, love each other as brothers and sisters, be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Ephesians 4:32 says to be kind to each other, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven us. Our goal must be to have tender hearts that are always receptive and always responsive to the word and work of God.
Jesus asked the disciples questions to help them understand how to make their hearts tender. He asked them to pay attention to what was being said and to reflect on the word and work of God. He wanted them to be conscious and intentional about thinking and reflecting on the implications of what was being said. When our priorities are out of sync and we are not on the same page, our hearts become hard. But when we receive the word and work of God, when we are open and paying attention, our hearts become more tender.
It's as if we're trying to assemble the pieces of information to fit into a puzzle, a form that reflects the purpose of God. It's meditation; it's thinking intentionally, personally, and applicationally about how what has been transmitted can affect our lives. Our heart becomes tender when we reflect on the word and remember the work of God. We take a look back at God's faithfulness in a particular situation, problem, or incident and how God proved himself faithful. We record it, and when necessary, we bring that back with gratitude and confidence that the God who was faithful in the past will be faithful in the present and can be trusted in the future.
So, how do we tenderize the heart? We receive, reflect, and remember. We start by asking God to soften our heart. We can pray Psalm 139, asking God to search us, know our hearts, test us, and point out anything in us that offends Him. We invite Him to lead us along the path of everlasting life. The goal is for us to have tender hearts that are always receptive and responsive to the word and work of God.
Heavenly Father, we know that in this room and on this stage there are places that are more stony than they should ever be in us. We know there are places where we are closed to the full revelation of your grace, your truth, and your power. Some of us have given in to disappointment, to fear, and to the magnitude of the circumstances we can't see our way out of. We are forlorn, dejected, and have lost confidence.
We ask that you do the work in softening our hearts, so that there is room enough in them for you to be our Savior, Lord, Master, and Answer. We pray that this happens in our relationships, our provisions, our residences, our jobs, our bodies, and our minds. We let you have your way, so that we can experience your grace and your faithfulness. Let this be a day of miracles, when our hearts become receptive and responsive to you as an act of worship and devotion. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
on Nov 05, 2023
