A Word about doing All Things Well on the Road to the Cross

 

Today I want to share a word about doing all things wells on the road to the cross as I comment on Mark 7:24-37. 

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. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.  And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Introduction:

Churches often send questionnaires to potential staff members. Along with logical questions about a personal testimony and doctrinal beliefs, some of the questions can seem a little strange at times. One pair of questions I once saw asked in succession: How would you describe yourself? How would your peers describe you?

Now, the first question in that pair was very logical but I am not too sure about the second! The pastor who received that questionnaire answered it: “I hope my peers would agree with my description of myself, but I think you will have to ask them!”

It would be fascinating, though quite possibly embarrassing, for us to know what our peers actually think of us. We do know, however, what the people who walked with Jesus thought of Him: "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Wow, would to God everyone who looked into our lives would say, “He has done everything well!” Let’s unpack how Jesus did all things well.

First, Jesus Demonstrated the Power of God:

We have all seen people who thought they could do things but who simply could not do them. For example:

During a nationally televised news conference, a government agency provided a sign language interpreter. This man energetically made motions with his hands and with his facial expressions, and to those who didn’t know sign language, nothing seemed amiss. In the middle of the conference, however, another official came up and physically removed him so another person could take his place. In turned out that he was not trained in sign language, but he thought he could do it anyway. Everyone involved was highly embarrassed.

On the other hand, we have all seen people who could do things, and they did them well. For example:

One of my favorite childhood memories was the day my dad took me with him to have new tires installed on our car. He knew the tire shop owner, so we could stand inside the bay while they removed the old tires and mounted the new ones. I was fascinated! The men doing the work had done this countless times before. They knew exactly how to use the tire mounting machine without a single wasted motion. The best way I can describe it is as an industrial ballet. I was amazed!

From the beginning of time, our world has produced false prophets, false teachers, and snake oil salesmen, who either think that they can do things, and can’t, or who know that they can’t do them and seek to deceive people. We find an example of this in Acts 19:11-20,  

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

As Jesus walked the earth, He was the embodiment of the power of God. The things that Jesus did were amazing to the people who observed His acts, but in truth, that’s just how God rolls! 

When we see the power of God being exercised in our lives, we call them miracles. In heaven, they call that Tuesday.

Next, Jesus Displayed the Mission of God:

The thing I have come to understand, is that the definition of “doing all things well,” can differ, depending upon who you may be talking to. 

As one pastor who moved from a large city to a rural area once told me, “When I was in [the big city], if a church held a community outreach event it had to be absolutely excellent. If it wasn’t done to a very high standard, people had many other churches to choose from, and they would just go down the road to the next offering. Here, people are not as concerned about how well you do an event as much as they see that you care enough to do the event.” This is like the catchphrase, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Timothy Keller learned this when he moved from being a successful pastor of a rural church in Pennsylvania to start the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He said that in Pennsylvania, he had to be a good pastor first, before his congregation would allow him to be an effective preacher. In New York, Keller had to be an effective preacher before his congregation would allow him to become their pastor.

So, what about Jesus? Why did He seem to be “hiding His light under a basket?”

Simply this, Jesus did not come to heal people. He came to seek and save the lost souls of this world. Paul described this mission this way in Romans 1:16-17,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Jesus, being God, was and is perfect, and He perfectly pursued the mission that he was sent to accomplish. And what was this mission? What was His priority? We can see it in the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10,

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

He had a mission to accomplish, but that did not prevent Him from being kind and loving to those who did not understand that mission. In truth, no one alive at that time understood His mission, and so Jesus had to be patient with all kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles, His disciples and His critics, those seeking salvation as well as those seeking miracles.

Next, Jesus Distributed the Gifts of God:

So, what about us? Are we capable of doing all things well? The short answer is: No!

The Book of Judges demonstrated conclusively that people are incapable of doing all things well because of our addiction to sin. Judges details this cycle of addiction:

• The Children of Israel fell into sin, and they suffered because of it.
• The Children of Israel called upon God, and He sent a judge to deliver them from their sin.
• The Children of Israel praised and worshiped God, but then they forgot what He had done for them.
• The Children of Israel fell into sin, and they suffered because of it.

Yet, Paul taught in Colossians 3:23-24,

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

If we are to work as for the Lord, He will expect us to meet His standards. He did all things well; how can we be expected to do that? Simply by this: Jesus distributed God’s gifts to us.

We know that Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit. In John 14:15-19 He taught us,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.”

We also know that the Holy Spirit sends us gifts as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11,

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

So, what do we see here? 

• Everyone in Christ has been given gifts by the Holy Spirit
• These gifts give us abilities that we naturally do not have
• There are many different gifts, but all gifts are important and are needed by the church
• Those abilities help us do things well for the Kingdom of God
• We need to use them to advance the ministry of the church

To know more about these gifts of the Spirit, we only need to look at a few passages of Scripture: Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4. That last passage summarizes the situation succinctly but effectively:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus does all things well, even to the extent of helping us do things well for the sake of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God

Conclusion:

We should live our lives so that people will say that we do all things well as we serve God. 

It is a difficult balancing act to pursue a mission, while at the same time relating to people who don’t understand your mission, but Jesus did it, and, since He sent us the Holy Spirit to empower our ministry, we can, too. 

As the advertising slogan goes, “If it were easy, anyone could do it.” Seek the help of the Holy Spirit, and while it will probably never be easy, it can be done!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt