You Talking To Me? Series

Mark 7: 31 – 37

You Talking To Me?

31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

As a reminder to some who are just joining us in our study of the Gospel of Mark, let me give you a little historical background. The disciple Mark was probably the young man who ran away naked on the night the soldiers came to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was later somewhat adopted by the apostle Peter as his spiritual son. Peter translated all the information to Mark to write down all that he remembered as the Holy Ghost inspired.

The first one to put down on paper all that our Lord said and did was the apostle Matthew. He also commented on this incident but not in so much detail as Peter remembered. We find Matthew’s observation in chapter 15 of his Gospel, “29 Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. 31 So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

Let me ask you all a question, ‘Do you believe in miracles? Have you ever experienced one’?

I hereby testify that I have personally witnessed dozens of miracles. I can also tell you that when it happens, it somewhat short circuits the brain. You begin to question, ‘was that injury, sickness, or emergency really that extreme?’ Well, I can tell you that if you were ever given the Lord’s authority to perform such great deeds you would know that the majority of all the people who flocked to you with their sick, physically disabled, or dying love ones were sincere that their loved ones needed healing. I am also sure that there would be some evil people who would try to come to you with fake injuries to see what you would do, but that is another story.

I am greedy. In my prayers I ask the Lord to let me be His friend like Abraham and Moses were. I want Him to love me like He does David and Daniel. And I want Him to give me the authority to perform miracles like the gift he gave to Elijah and Elisha. Like I said, I’m greedy, but all in all I realize just the one thing. What I do here on earth doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Everything I want to do is to give ‘Glory’ to El Shaddai – Almighty God.

Today I want to discuss a particular miracle that only Peter went into detail on. So, let’s take a look at what happened.

31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.

Most Christians just read this verse like they understand what it really says. Do you know where Tyre and Sidon are? If you do you are in a small minority of bible students. For the rest just let me say that these areas are in a different country. Have you ever heard of Lebanon? Well, back then, the people didn’t have the country boarders like we do today so people were more able to move around.

Now please notice that our Lord comes to - He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.’

So, what do you think is the significance of this area? You see all this area is ‘Gentile’ area. Tyre and Sidon along with the region of Decapolis were habituated by Gentiles not Jews. The ‘Region of Decapolis’ was composed of 10 cities along the Sea of Galilee. Having this information kind of gives you some things to think about, don’t it. There were pockets of Jewish people living in these areas but I also believe our Lord was also reaching out to the Gentiles.