Sermons

Introduction

It is always such a blessing to be here. This church is near and dear to Marcy and my heart. We love getting to see what the Lord is doing here. I hope that you don't take for granted and that you don't miss the obvious that's here, that the Lord is at work in a very unique way. It's possible, because you're just in the midst of it, that it may seem like these days are ordinary, but they're not; the Lord is doing a very good and a very special work here. And I know that there are challenges. Whenever you have a church that's growing and you've got issues with parking and issues with fitting in the space, and the need for children's space, all those kinds of things, I realize that there are challenges that come. But make sure you understand and remember that to deal with those kinds of issues are tremendous blessings.
 
To be at a church at a certain place in time where the Lord is just sovereignly, supernaturally bringing so many people here that you need more space, bringing so many young families here that you need more children space, these are wonderful things, and they're days that I hope that you are very excited to be a part of here. It has been a true honor for me to get to come here over the course of the last five-and-a-half years, and it has always a tremendous blessing for us to be able to see people who become friends of ours here. And for those of you who I have not met yet, I would certainly love to do so after the service is over.
 
As Mark mentioned, I know that this congregation has recently finished the study of the book of Genesis. I had the honor to be here for several of those sermons along the way to teach. I know that next week you're jumping into Colossians, and so what I want to try to do this morning is build a bridge somewhat between where you've been in Genesis and where you're going next week in Colossians.
 
Genesis, of course, records for us this amazing reality that the Lord is going to send a Redeemer, chapter 3, verse 15, that it is through the Redeemer that we will have hope and have salvation. And that gets clarified in Genesis 12, as we find out that through Abraham, through the people of God, there is going to be not only land and seed, but there's going to be a blessing, they're going to be a blessing throughout all the world.
 
And so, how does that happen? Well, it happens ultimately through the promise of Genesis 3:15 being fulfilled, that is the coming of Jesus Christ. And so I want to take you there in part this morning. But as you're going into the book of Colossians next week, this wonderful, beautiful letter dealing with high Christology of the person of Christ and the superiority of Christ, I want to take you to a passage today that will focus your minds on Jesus; I think that will help prepare you for next week, but also an example of how the saving message of the Lord goes beyond just Israel.
 
Now it's true in the Old Testament that you see examples of that; but primarily when you come to the first century, the people of Israel have forgotten that their role was that the message of salvation didn't end with them; they were to be a light to the world. And when you come into the New Testament part of what you see happening is the fulfillment the Messiah has come, but you also see how that gospel message goes to the ends of the world. And so I want to try to build a bridge for you today between those two great themes, Genesis and where you're going next week in Colossians.
 
So, just a little bit of background. Mark chapter 7 is where I'd like to invite you to turn with me this morning; and with that background, let me read our text this morning: Mark chapter 7. I'll read verses 24 to 30, if you would follow along.
 
Verse 24, "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." Would you pray with me?
 
[Prayer] Lord, we humble ourselves today under Your mighty hand, asking that through Your Spirit You would lead us and teach us. I pray that You would use my words today to help people to understand Your Word. We pray that Your Spirit move in power in bringing hope and encouragement. Lord, for any among us who may not know Your Son the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, we pray that even this day would be their day of salvation. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen. [End]
 
So, in the Old Testament the message of salvation is told to us, now it's going to come and be fulfilled in the Redeemer that the Father sends. And what happens is as Israel, called by God uniquely to be His people, He is uniquely their God, in the sense of He gave them the Law, He gave them the miracles, He gave them the prophets. They had the tabernacle, they had the Word of God.
 
But as I mentioned a moment ago, it was never that it was the purpose of God for salvation to be exclusively just with Israel; they are to be the light to the nations. Mark is writing here to a predominantly Gentile audience, and he wants to make clear that we would understand that this is what we see taking place, that the salvation of God is extending. There are examples where that happened in the Old Testament; but in the first century, the religious leaders have largely missed what their role was to be . We think about the words of Romans 1:16 that tells us, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile."
 
When you think about in the Old Testament, for example, the example of Jonah. Here is a prophet of God who is running from the Lord. And when we think about Jonah, primarily our mind immediately goes to the idea of a man being thrown overboard, being swallowed by a fish, and we begin to think about, "How did that happen?" and, "What did that look like?" and, "What kind of fish was it?" and, "What was his experience like?" But in the midst of that story, don't miss the point of why it happened.
 
It happened because Jonah was running from God; and the reason Jonah was running from God, he tells us: it's because he knew that God was merciful, and Jonah did not want salvation coming to the people of Nineveh. And what has happened, Jonah is a picture of what was true for so many people, both in that day and in the first century, that people did not want to be used by God to be a light to the nations as they were supposed to do. But where the nation of Israel missed that, where the religious leaders missed that, Messiah will be faithful.
 
At this point in Mark chapter 7 we also see a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Up to this point, predominantly what Jesus has done has been with large crowds, many people have been gathered around. Now there will still be a little of that; but for the most part, by the time you get to Mark 7, something is changing. In large measure from here forward, Jesus is not anymore with the large multitudes, He is with His twelve.
 
Now that's significant, because that helps us understand what's going on in the text I read you, that He's in this prolonged time of pulling away predominantly from the large crowds, and He is going to be teaching and training and ministering to the twelve. He's trying to help them and prepare them for the time that He will be gone. And He has to do this, because as we know, the religious leaders in His day we're not faithful. Even Jesus' own hometown of Nazareth had opposed Him; and that opposition is just going to gain steam and increase up until the time where He will be crucified.
 
So in this text we're looking at this morning as I've read to you, if we're honest, at first reading it sounds a little hard to hear; maybe even sounds a bit harsh with the dialogue that's there; for some, it feels even maybe a little dismissive. What I want to try to do, though, is take you today through the context into the language and show you this is not harsh, this is not dismissive. In fact, there is a great mercy that is given here in this account. And the background is that the apostles need to see an example of true, persevering faith. They need to see a picture of what it looks like for someone who truly believes with a faith that is persevering no matter what.
 
Now the question is, "Where can the Lord go to show His apostles such an example of true, genuine, persevering faith?" Well, we might think that the first place He could go would be the religious leaders, the people who are to be shepherds over God's people. But we know we can't use them as an example. In fact, earlier in Mark chapter 7, Jesus Himself says of the religious leaders that their worship is in vain – it's a word that means empty – because they are teaching as the Commandments of God what are really just the words of men. They've been unfaithful. And so Jesus can't look at the religious leaders to give a picture of true, persevering faith to His apostles.
 
You think, "Well, if He can't give an example of the religious leaders, maybe He could give an example of those who have known Him the longest, the people in His own hometown of Nazareth." But He can't look to the people of Nazareth as a good example, because the people of Nazareth have rejected Him.
 
And you say, "Well, maybe He could point to His family. His family could be an example of true, genuine, persevering faith." But the Bible makes clear for us in Mark chapter 3 that at this point in time even His own siblings said of Jesus that He was out of His mind. It won't be till after the resurrection that their life is transformed.
 
And you say, "Well, maybe the apostles themselves are our example. Maybe He could just remind them of their own faith." But if you go back just a little bit in the gospel of Mark right where Jesus has fed the five thousand men, plus women and children, and then He gets on the boat and He walks on the water, it says of the apostles that just the night before when He fed all the thousands of people they were not understanding what it meant because they had hard hearts.
 
So all these people that you might think would be good examples of the faith – religious leaders, people from Jesus' own hometown, Jesus' own family. or the twelve apostles – none of them can be pointed to as examples of true, genuine, persevering faith. And as Jesus is training the twelve for this extended amount of time, they need to see what true, persevering faith really looks like; and the place where we see it of all places is from this most unlikely convert.
 
Let's look at the text again, verse 24: "From there He arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon." We're going to put a slide up here just so you can get a little bit of an image of what this looks like where He is. So He's been in Galilee ministering, and He's going to go up here to the northwest to Tyre, and then He's going to go from Tyre up to Sidon. And so you can see He's purposely leaving the land here, going beyond the borders. He's going to reenter from Sidon all the way back over here at the Decapolis.
 
So, I just want you to see visually what Jesus is doing. He's purposefully withdrawing away. He's taking this long circuitous route on purpose, because it gives Him time to teach and train the twelve away from the large multitudes. And so they enter this area here it says of Tyre and Sidon. Tyre about 35 miles away from Galilee. Go about another 25 miles to the north and you get there to Sidon.
 
Now if you know your Bible pretty well, those two names Tyre and Sidon are names that stand out to us a bit, they're often grouped together. They're grouped together in part because they're both coastal cities and places of trade in business. But it's more than that: in time, these two cities of Tyre and Sidon become synonymous with idolatry, idolatrous for a place of pagan worship. And when you read that Jesus has left the region of Galilee to go to Tyre and Sidon, it reminds us of what has always been true, that God's saving purpose extends beyond just one geographical area and is to go to the nations. In fact, we know that, because in the Old Testament, Psalm 45 and Psalm 87 specifically reference this message of the Lord in His salvation reaching all the way to Tyre and Sidon.
 
It says in verse 24 that "He entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet He could not be hidden." Word is spreading fast that Jesus is in town. Mark 3:8 refer to people from this region who had come to hear Jesus. So just a little while ago some people from this area came down, they had heard Jesus, they heard Him preach, heard His message, saw His works, saw the things that He was doing. Word spreads fast about who He is and what He's doing. Now He's come into to their region and He was trying to remain unknown, yet He could not be hidden. And we're going to encounter a very specific lady, this most unlikely of converts, that's going to become for the apostles and for us an example of true, persevering faith.

Faith

I want you just to make a few notes about her that we learned from the text. Number one, just write down that word "faith." We see her faith. We're introduced her in verse 25: "But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of Him and came and fell down at His feet." Just that first sentence right there is enough to shock us a bit. It's hard to even imagine and fathom this lady, this Syrophoenician lady who was falling at the feet of Jesus, because everything in her background is all about idolatry. Everything from where she lives is all about pagan worship. Yet she has heard of Jesus: she's heard of who He is, she's heard of what He does, she's heard about His message.
 
As I mentioned a moment ago, Mark 3 tells us some people from this region have already come down to hear Him. They've gone back to their hometown, and word is spreading about who He is and what He says and what He does. Now who told her about Him? How much does she know? Did somebody hear Jesus speak and believe and go back and tell her? Were there people who went and heard Him speak and came back and told the message, and they didn't believe it, but she did? Was she one of the ones who went down to hear Him speak?
 
Mark doesn't give us all the details; but what we do know is that she has heard the story of who Jesus is. And it says in verse 26, "Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth." So she's a Greek-speaking Gentile that's a Phoenician that – and Matthew's gospel adds to it – she was a descendant of the Canaanites. This is a most unlikely example for us: Greek-speaking Gentile woman, Syrophoenician, who's descended from the Canaanites. I mean, if this lady can believe, anybody can. And I would just add to that, if God can save her, He can save anyone; and if He can save you, He can save others.
 
I think sometimes in our evangelism we get pretty intimidated, because we think to ourselves, "Well, this would be a really hard one for God to save," as if you were easy, right? We're all sinners. We're all rebels. We tend to think, "Well, of course, God could save me, I'm so nice. Of course, God could save me, we're so pleasant." Here's the reality of it. We're all sinners. Each of us have turned to his own way, we've all gone astray. All of us are deserving of death and judgment. Yet God is rich in His mercy; and if God can save her, He can save anyone. If He can save you, He can save others. Do not ever think God's saving work has ended. By His grace He continues to draw people to Himself, maybe even you this morning.
 
Verse 26, the lady had a condition, a problem, a situation that is forefront of her mind. It says in verse 26, "She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter." We don't know everything she knew. We don't know how extensive her knowledge was. We don't know everything that she was familiar with. We don't know the questions she may have still had. This much we know: she had heard who Jesus is, and she goes to Him and falls at His feet and begs Him to heal her daughter.
 
In fact, again, Matthew's gospel in chapter 15, verse 22 adds, "She was saying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, O son of David.'" Quite interesting that a lady in this region would use that name, the messianic title for Jesus. It seems that this Syrophoenician Gentile Greek-speaking lady, a descent of the Canaanites, seems to understand who Jesus is more than His own people do. But she has the faith to come to Him and to fall down in His feet, asking Him to do what she knew nobody else could do for her.

Humility

But we see not only faith, secondly, we see her "humility." In verse 27 it says, "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.'" Now in the middle when we first read that, it makes us a little uncomfortable; it sounds a little harsh. Sounds like one of the Bible stories and children's Sunday school we may just kind of gloss over very quickly.
 
But we need to consider it. And what sounds at first as if it's some hard, harsh thing actually is quite the contrary, because the context helps us to see that what is happening here is her faith is being tested. He's giving her the opportunity to put her trust and her faith in Him on display, not only for herself in her own heart, but as an example and as a witness to the apostles themselves.
 
Now, how was her faith tested? It's tested in at least these three ways. First, her faith is tested by His silence. She comes and she's begging Him to cast the demon out of her daughter, and Matthew 15 adds that "Jesus did not answer her a word." Her request is met with silence.
 
And again, our temptation is to say, "Well, that sounds almost unkind." But understand what He's doing. He is giving this lady opportunity to prove that her faith is genuine, that her faith has perseverance, that her faith is real, that she's going to stay, and she is believing, and she is at His feet, and she believes and trusts He's the only one that can help her. And so even if the Lord does not do exactly what she wanted at exactly the time she wanted it, her faith will remain. That's what real faith does.
 
And we live in a culture of people who so many times come to church or read their Bible or pray as if as long as God does exactly what they want, they'll remain; but if God does not do exactly what they want, how they want, when they want it, then they punt their faith. Why? Why would they do that? Well, the answer is because they're not truly converted. People who just use the Lord or try to use their religion as a way to get God to give them more stuff, if that's all it is for them, then when they don't get exactly what they want, they just leave and try something else. And so much of what the apostles have seen in their time with Jesus has been superficial faith. People who appear to be religious, but in truth their hearts are far from God.
 
In fact, it was just earlier in chapter 7, verses 6 and 7, that Jesus takes that very prophecy of Isaiah and says, "Well did Isaiah say of you that your worship is in vain, because your lips say the right things, but your heart is far from the Lord." This is so much of what the apostles have seen to this point: superficial faith.
 
Even after Jesus fed the five thousand men, plus women and children, this amazing miracle, the only miracle Jesus performed that's in all four gospels, it's this very important event; and yet, even in that event, the Scripture tells us that the disciples themselves were not understanding, because their hearts were hard. The disciples missed the point, and the people missed the point, because after Jesus does that miracle, it says that the people came and tried to take Jesus by force and make Him their king, as if He would submit to their rule: "Well, You can be king, but You can be king because You can do for us everything that we want." It's superficial. And so Jesus is silent at her request, but it's not because He's being harsh. He's giving her time to display, and He's drawing out of her a true, living example of what persevering faith really is all about.
 
But her faith is tested not only because of His silence, her faith is tested by a lack of an immediate answer. She keeps asking, she keeps begging, and Matthew 15:23 clarifies that "His disciples came and begged Him, saying, 'Send her away, for she is crying out after us.'" The lady comes, she falls down at Jesus' feet, and she is begging Jesus to help. Her little girl is at home, possessed, tormented, tortured by a demon; and she gets silence.
 
But she keeps begging. And she's going to the apostles, and she's begging and begging for help, so much so that the apostles come to Jesus and say, "Would you please get rid of this lady? She's driving us crazy. She won't stop. She won't be deterred. No matter what we say to her, no matter how silent You may be, she keeps crying out to You." But that's the point. That's what true, persevering faith does. It may be that you don't get the response to your prayers in the exact way and timing and method that you chose; but real persevering faith refuses to let go of their trust in Jesus Christ.
 
But her faith is tested a third way, because first, Jesus is silent, then she has to keep going, because the disciples want to push her away. But then when Jesus finally does speak, it can't be the response that she had hoped for. Jesus tells her this, according to Matthew 15, "I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel." But she came and knelt before Him, saying, "Lord, help me."
 
She bows before Him: proskuneó. She bows down before Him, "Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, help me." And what is happening here is Jesus is giving time to allow the difference in her faith and just about everybody else that the apostles have seen, and they can see a real genuine difference. She didn't get the immediate answer she wanted. She didn't get the immediate reply she had hoped for. And what does she do? She stays, she remains: "Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, help me." Her words remain Christ-centered. Her words remain faith-filled. Her words remain humble.
 
Mark 7:27, Jesus does speak to her now: "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And we think, "Oh man, what are we going to do with that?" He's been silent, and that seemed painful. Now He speaks, and we think, "What is that about?"
 
Well, let's not try to gloss past it, let's just be honest and take it head on. The bread is Jesus, the children are the Israelites, and the dogs are the Gentiles. And we read that and we think surely we misread that. But no, that's what He said: "Let the children be fed first. It's not right take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
 
But again, let me remind you of both the context and the language; both of these are very important. There are, just so you're aware, there are two different Greek words at the time that that could have been used here to refer to dogs. One is the word kuón, which refers to a mongrel or a stray dog, the kind of dog that may walk down the street and dig in the trash, the kind of dog that would frighten you, the kind of dog you wouldn't go near and pet, the kind of dog that you would warn your children to stay away from. That's not the word He uses.
 
There's another word, kunarion, which is the word He used, which refers to a family pet, a house pet. And that word fits the context of the whole analogy. This lady is begging Jesus to do what only He can do, because she's heard of who He is, and she asks for mercy, and she begs for help, and she refuses to give up, and Jesus says to her, "You don't take the food out of the mouth of a child to give it to the pet." The context, the setting is at a meal; and you gather there for your meal, and maybe you have a little household pet that comes and sits right beside you, hoping to be fed; and Jesus says, "You wouldn't take food away from your children to give to the pet, you would make sure that the children are fed first."
 
Now we tend to read that in our world with our culture and think, "Well, that sounds kind of harsh." But it doesn't sound harsh to her. She understands. She understands the language, she understands the context. She sees that there's nothing in Jesus' eyes, there's nothing in His tone, there's nothing in His mannerisms that suggests He is being cold or harsh or hostile. It all made sense to her. She doesn't find it unkind, she doesn't find it cruel or dismissive, she understands.
 
I also think it's worth noting that when Jesus says this, His apostles are hearing Him say that, and they're thinking, "There it is! Ha-ha, I told you." When Jesus says this statement He knows that the apostles have been dismissing her, He knows the apostles have been begging Him to send her home. So when He says, "You don't take food away from the children to feed the pets," you just have to imagine Jesus looking over His shoulder to make sure the apostles are listening, because in the apostles' mind, what Jesus has just said is case closed. In the apostles' mind, what Jesus just said means, "This isn't for her."

Perseverance

But that's not true at all. Notice what takes place. And I want you to write down a third word, and that's the word "perseverance." She says in verse 28, "She answered Him, 'Yes, Lord.'" She's not offended. What He is saying, the way He says it, the look in His eye, the tone of His voice, the posture of His body, she gets it. He's not being unkind, He's not being harsh, He's not being dismissive. He's not being cold. She understands the context, she understands the metaphor. She understands what Paul will later write in Romans 1 that "Salvation is for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile." She gets it.
 
And she doesn't argue with Him. She doesn't protest that what He's saying is unkind. She says, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." She understands the metaphor. She understands the picture. And when she says this, the apostles are able to see what persevering faith looks like. This is somebody who has heard of who Jesus is, has heard of His message has believed in Him, and goes to Him and asks Him to do what only He can do; and she falls at His feet, and she calls Him Son of David, the messianic title, and she asks Him to have mercy, and she keeps asking, and she keeps begging. And even when the apostles discourage her from it and try to get her to leave, she refuses to leave the feet of Jesus, because she knows who He is.
 
And even when she gets silence, and even when she gets discouragement from the apostles, and even when the answer from Jesus is not exactly what she would have most wanted at that point, her faith still perseveres. And because Jesus has allowed this to play out, when they leave this location and they walk on up to Sidon for 22 miles, Jesus has someone He can say, "Gentlemen, that is a picture of persevering faith," not like you found in the religious leaders, not what you found from people in His hometown of Nazareth, not what you found from His own siblings, and not even what you found in the apostles themselves. Her words were Christ-centered, they were honest, they were devout. They were words of faith, words of humility, and the words of persevering faith. Her faith was resilient.
 
Her only confidence is that she knew Christ was her only hope. And you contrast this to the story in Matthew 19 of the rich young ruler, I mean just his name has everything the world wants. He's rich, people want wealth. He's young, everybody wants to be youthful. He's a ruler, everybody wants to be powerful. Just this guy's name, just the way we refer to him says he had everything the world could want. And he goes to Jesus, and when he does not get the answer he wants in the way he wants, in the timing he wants from Jesus, what does the rich young ruler do? He walks away sad. Jesus did not say what he wanted Him to say, and he bailed.
 
In contrast is this lady, of all people, a Greek-speaking Gentile woman from Syrophoenicia, a descendant of the Canaanites. And when she did not hear exactly what she wanted the way she wanted, what did she do? She stayed at His feet, trusting, believing that Christ was her only hope. In fact, Matthew 15:28, Matthew adds that at this point Jesus said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!" These are the words of Jesus: "Great is your faith!" The apostles are hearing this not about their religious leaders, the apostles are hearing this not about themselves, they're hearing it about a Greek-speaking Gentile woman that's a descendant of the Canaanites. "Woman, great is your faith!"
 
Verse 29, "And He said to her, 'For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.'" It's amazing. "And when she went home she found the child lying in a bed and the demon gone." Jesus healed from a distance. He didn't even have to physically go to the house, because when You're God, You can do as You purpose to do.
 
Her faith was great, and because of the way that Jesus allowed her faith to be drawn out and put on display, He's able to say to the apostles of this lady, "Great is her faith!" It was this girl's, this lady's daughter that got her to such a place of need. Her daughter is demon-possessed, tortured and tormented by the demons; hurting, suffering. This lady's daughter is unable to pray for herself, and the reason why the little girl gets healed is because of the faith and the prayer of her mother. As J. C. Ryle said about this passage, "Hopeless and desperate as her case appeared, she had a praying mother; and where there was a praying mother, there is always hope."
 
I want you to be encouraged, friends. The prayers of the people of God are powerful tools in the hands of a holy God. And some of you have children that are sick, some of you have children or grandchildren that are wayward, they're not walking with the Lord, and you find yourself heartbroken. When you have a praying parent, you have hope.
 
And I understand that you may have questions in your mind that I can't answer: "When is God going to answer this prayer? Why is the Lord allowing this to happen? What's it going to take to turn my child's heart back to the Lord?" There's questions I can't answer. Here's what I can tell you, that when there is a praying parent, there is always hope. Don't give up on your children. Don't give up on your grandchildren. Don't give up on your parents. Don't give up on your coworker.
 
Some of you say, "But if you knew who my child was, if you knew how hard his heart was, if you just understood how rebellious he's been," let me just say this: I agree with the words of J. C. Ryle: "Were you have a praying parent, you have hope." You intercede for your child.
 
The child couldn't pray for herself, but the mother could. And I think about the scene when the lady goes home, Jesus says, "For this statement you may go your way. Your faith is genuine. I've seen your faith, it's persevered. I've heard what you've said, I've watched how you've responded. Your daughter has been healed, the demon has left your daughter."
 
Verse 30, "She went home and she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone." I have to wonder what it was like for that girl that was demon-possessed, when she knows what it's like to be in bed and to feel ill and to not have any strength, and to feel tortured and to feel tormented and not be able to explain it, not be able to do anything about it. But at some point while her mom is away, at some point this daughter lying in her bed sick and ill with the demon, at some point that demon left, and the girl feels whole again; and the pain is gone, and the torture and the torment is gone, and that little girl for the first time feels right. And her mom comes home, and you just imagine the scene as the mom comes in the room to check on the daughter, and the daughter says to her mom, "I don't know what happened, I can't explain it; but when you were gone, something happened, and I've been healed!" And the mom says, "I know; I was praying for you. I brought your need to the only One who could heal you." See, that's what Jesus does. He heals what nobody else can heal. He restores what no one else can put back together.
 
What do we take away from this? Well, I agree, as one author put it, that this lady is a rebuke to apostate Israel. This lady is a rebuke to the religious leaders of the day who are supposed to be living faithfully, but were not. This lady's also a great example to the apostles, and to us, of what true, genuine faith is all about. And this lady is an example to us to never doubt God's ability to save anyone.
 
My brothers and sisters today, don't write people off in your life. That coworker who seems to hate the things of God, that person you went to school with that rebelled away from the things of the Lord, and you've decided, "Well, they will never believe; they're too worldly, they're too sinful, they're too rebellious," keep praying for them.
 
This girl couldn't even pray for herself, but she had a mom who stepped in and prayed for her. Do the same for the broken people in your life. Do the same for those who you know that are in need. Keep spreading the seeds of the gospel. Keep praying for those who need to know Christ, and keep looking to Jesus who is the author and the perfecter of your faith.
 
So, you've spent a long time looking in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings; and what we see in Genesis is that God created, and man rebelled; and a Savior, a Redeemer was promised; and that God had a purpose and a plan, and He calls Israel to be His own people, that through them, this word, this plan, this message of salvation would go to all the world. And even though most of the people in the Old Testament missed it, and even though most of the people even in Jesus' day missed it, yet where everybody else fell, Jesus stands. And He shows His apostles here through this lady that God's grace is strong enough to save anyone. And He reminds us that one of the tools He uses to bring people healing and to bring people deliverance are the prayers of the faithful.
 
My friends, so many times you may think, "I just can't do anything to help my child; all I can do is pray for them." That's the point. That's the point; because if you could do something of your own flesh, you would do that, likely, instead of praying for them.
 
But the mother couldn't do anything else for her daughter. Whatever she tried whatever remedy, whatever word of advice she got on the street, nothing could deliver her daughter. The only one who could was Jesus. And she had heard His message, she had heard of Him, and she fell at His feet and she worshiped. And even though the people around her – in this case, the apostles – tried to discourage her, she remained. And even though she didn't get the immediate response from Jesus she wanted, she remained, because that's what persevering faith does: it just refuses to move from the feet of Jesus.

Conclusion

And that's what I challenge you with today. If your faith is genuine, stay faithful, stay committed; and no matter what anybody says around you, no matter what results you may get, you just refuse to let go of your trust and your faith and your worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you watch Him do what only He can do. And one of these days when we get to heaven, we're going to look around. And maybe one of the most often things you'll hear repeated is someone looking at you saying, "You're here?" and you say, "You're here?"
 
See, this is what the Lord does. He takes those who are outcast, and by His grace He welcomes them home, so that when we get to heaven the most surprising thing of all, it's going to be that we who were undeserving were there, not by our works, but by His grace. And just like was prophesied in Genesis that you've been walking through, if you go to the very end of the Bible in Revelation it tells us that that prophecy is fulfilled, as it pictures people from every language, every nation, every tribe, and every tongue worshiping the Lord, saying, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!"
 
Do not marveled the Syrophoenician woman is there, marvel that you're there. Marvel at the grace that saved you. Marvel at the depth of love and mercy that forgave your heart and welcomed you home. And keep praying for the Lord to save others. That's what He does.
 
[Prayer] Lord, we thank You today for Your Word, and pray that Your Spirit would help us to have understanding and insight. Bring hope where there's discouragement. Bring healing where there's lostness. Bring forgiveness where there's sin. And grant us that we would persevere in our faith and refuse to let go of our trust in Your Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
 

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