Mark 7:24-30

[snapstur]

@Shield> thanks for coming everyone, let’s get started

@Shield> keep inviting your friends:)

@Shield> Welcome to this edition of the CCNet Bible study and server meeting.

@Shield> Tonight we have a special guest speaker, whom we will introduce as soon as I can think of something suitably embarrassing to roast him....

seekHm1st> o.O

Dacia> lol

@Shield> Before I do that, I want to remind you that we also have forums at www.forums.christian-chat.net. Our forum membership is growing daily and is gaining momentum, so check it out!

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@Shield> If you wish to share your ideas or feedback, you may email chatbot@christian-chat.net. The owner of the network gets that email.

@Shield> Of course you can always email me as well at shield@christian-chat.net.

@Shield> Unless you have a complaint, then you can email seekHm1st....but I digress...

seekHm1st> !

@Shield> :D

@Shield> Let's open in prayer and then we will introduce our guest

@Shield> Father, we thank you that you are on the throne and your throne is unthreatened.

@Shield> We are grateful for your mercy and grace which you have shown us by virtue of your Son Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and was raised up bodily three days later, victorious over sin.

@Shield> We thank you that we have hope eternal through the promise you have given.

@Shield> And we give you praise.

@Shield> For now and evermore.

Dacia> yes Lord.

@Shield> On this night, may our eyes and ears be attentive to the Spirit of the Lord as we learn together from the Book of Mark.

@Shield> In Jesus name, amen

seekHm1st> Amen

carol> amen

Snapstur> Amen

Deacon> Amen

LoOkOuT> amen

trtbum> amen

The_Nickless_Horseman> Amen

Pamela> amen

@Shield> :)

@Shield> Now, for our guest, who actually is really a regular just now getting back into the saddle.

@Shield> There are a lot of things I could say about him...

Dacia> who who who? Lol

trtbum> who who?

Dacia> sorry

trtbum> lol

Pamela> who

Dacia> couldn’t contain myself I apologize

trtbum> lol

@Shield> well Horton hears a who, but in this case it is seekHm1st:)

Dacia sits down quietly

Dacia> wooo hooooooooooo

@Shield> a good friend and all around fun guy to make nervous when I tell him I am going to introduce him:)

@Shield> keeps him on his toes

Dacia applauds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Shield> so seekHm1st, take er away

seekHm1st> Thanks Shield :)

seekHm1st> And thanks to all of you for being here this evening

seekHm1st> Last week, we were watching Jesus instruct the Pharisees on their error, in the ways that they avoided at times, doing what God really wanted them to do by trying to trump the authority of the word of God with their own man-made traditions.

@seekHm1st> After speaking to the Pharisees and addressing the multitude, Jesus went into a house and explained things more fully to his disciples, and He talked with them about the heart of mankind, and what a one's heart can lead one to do.

@seekHm1st> Mark, Chapter 7, Verse 23: "All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

@seekHm1st> It may be no coincidence that Jesus talked with His disciples about inner purity, just before they headed north to Phoenicia.

@seekHm1st> Let's go ahead and pick up where we left off last time :)

@seekHm1st> 24 Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.

@seekHm1st> When we are doing these studies, and we're going through an entire book like Mark, it is sometimes easy to get lost in smaller stories from the larger account.

@seekHm1st> That is something important that someone who shall remain nameless taught me.

@seekHm1st> (Shield)

@seekHm1st> *snort

@seekHm1st> So while we try not to lose sight of that fact, and of the larger narrative, tonight I want to "pull in" just a little bit, and look closely at an encounter between a Syro-Phoenician woman, and the Savior of mankind.

@seekHm1st> After leaving the Galilee, Jesus and His disciples headed north and west about 30 miles, crossing upward to the Mediterranean coastal city of Tyre.

@seekHm1st> Tyre was a large, rich, materialistic city with a long history of rivalry with Israel for trade, and it had, over the years, garnered a reputation for wickedness.

@seekHm1st> Jesus didn't have any complimentary things to say about Tyre and its sister city Sidon, in His ministry.

@seekHm1st> But Mark tells us that Jesus went into a house there, but that He didn't want anybody to know about it.

@seekHm1st> Think about where Jesus had just come from, and what He had been doing in the Galilee.

@seekHm1st> He had just "had it out" with some of that area's religious rulers, and now he had come a good distance on foot to a city where being Jewish might not be too well received by the populace at large.

@seekHm1st> 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

@seekHm1st> 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

@seekHm1st> The answer may be obvious, but let's talk about why this Canaanite woman would come to Jesus for this, and even fall at His feet. Anyone have any ideas?

@seekHm1st> Feel free to raise your hand o/

@seekHm1st> Anyone?

Tink> o/

@seekHm1st> Tink?

Tink> because she really believed he could help her

@seekHm1st> Yes, good.

@seekHm1st> Anyone else?

Deacon> o/

@seekHm1st> Deacon?

Deacon> she had probably heard of his teachings and healings

@seekHm1st> I agree. Thanks.

@seekHm1st> Let's look at what Jesus said to her.

@seekHm1st> 27 And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

@seekHm1st> Jesus, in referring to the nation of Israel as children, in turn was referring to the gentile nations, including this woman's, with the term 'dogs'.

@seekHm1st> This woman, driven by her love for her daughter, had pinned her hopes on Jesus to help cure her daughter.

@seekHm1st> Does what Jesus said to her here, sound just a little harsh? Even less than compassionate? Anyone?

Dacia> \o

@seekHm1st> Deacon?

Dacia> it almost doesn’t sound like something Jesus would do?

@seekHm1st> erm

@seekHm1st> Dacia

@seekHm1st> In a way, yes.

Dacia> or doesn’t sound like something he'd say

@seekHm1st> Okay

@seekHm1st> Anyone else?

Dacia> it seems racist, but I know there’s a meaning there

@seekHm1st> Good point Dacia

Dacia> thanks

trtbum> o?

@seekHm1st> The illustration Jesus was using here was not really uncaring. He was simply testing her faith.

Dacia> oh..

Dacia> yes..that s right!!

@seekHm1st> trtbum, did you have a question?

trtbum> actually, no, was just going to comment

@seekHm1st> feel free

trtbum> I was just thinking it does sound like things Jesus had said in other parts of scripture

@seekHm1st> Okay, we'll look at it a little closer :)

Dacia> yes I guess he says surprising things sometimes to get our attention :\o

@seekHm1st> When my wife and I sit down to a meal at our house, our little dog Molly is there at our feet in rapt attention.

@seekHm1st> She knows that she is not to interrupt our meal, but she is so intent on the possibility of something falling from the table that she sits by it and stares.

@seekHm1st> It was no different in Jesus' day.

@seekHm1st> 28 But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs."

@seekHm1st> Can you imagine trying to reason with the Lord of the Universe?

trtbum> lol...no

@seekHm1st> 29 And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter."

@seekHm1st> 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

Dacia> amen!! \o

@seekHm1st> :)

@seekHm1st> But in certain ways, I think with this encounter between Jesus and this woman, we have a large picture within a larger picture.

@seekHm1st> The little encounter that we just read through is built around a simple conversation between this woman and Jesus.

@seekHm1st> Jesus had left the Galilee, and I believe that He had an appointment with this very Canaanite woman.

@seekHm1st> As Dacia pointed out earlier, the beginning of His conversation with her made it sound as if He was not open to answering her request because she was a Canaanite, and a Phoenician.

@seekHm1st> There is an ethnic dimension of their discussion that is obviously very powerful.
@seekHm1st> But Jesus used that.

@seekHm1st> Over in Matthew's additional account of their conversation in Chapter 15,

@seekHm1st> we're told that this woman pleaded with Him and that Jesus also told her that "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

@seekHm1st> She was very persistent though, and it became obvious that even though she was a gentile, from a country that had at one time rejoiced when Israel had been captured by Babylon, that she did not intend to give up.

@seekHm1st> And what did Jesus do next. We read about it a few minutes ago? o/
@seekHm1st> Anyone?

@seekHm1st> He recognized her faith.

@seekHm1st> There is a compelling contrast here.

@seekHm1st> In the country of His birth, Jesus was working to convince people that He was the Messiah who was prophesied to come at the very time that He did.........

@seekHm1st> and He was being dared to prove it by showing them a sign.

@seekHm1st> By contrast, here He was in a gentile country, encountering a woman who was absolutely convinced that He was in fact the Messiah,

@seekHm1st> to the point that He was not able to check her efforts on behalf of her daughter.

@seekHm1st> If it is impossible to please God without faith, the faith of this mother, must have been very gratifying to Jesus.

@seekHm1st> She was not arguing with Jesus.

@seekHm1st> She was using what He said to say that she would willingly become an unnoticed observer beneath the meal table of the Jews.

@seekHm1st> She knew what a great gift to the people of Israel Jesus was, what a miracle His coming was, and she was willing to fall at the feet of the Lord to beg for a "crumb" from Him, a healing for her daughter.

@seekHm1st> That He did heal this woman's daughter says so much about our Lord.

@seekHm1st> It teaches us much about His grace

@seekHm1st> To fulfill Old Testament promise and prophecy, the Kingdom had to first be fully presented to the Jewish people, the children of Israel, but as He did with this Canaanite woman, Jesus would extend His grace to all people of all nations.

@seekHm1st> This would have been an instructive example to Jesus' disciples, even though in Acts 15 they would gather to determine if the Gospel had truly been given for the gentiles too.....

@seekHm1st> But this is also instruction for us too. It tells us that we are to take the message of God's grace in Jesus Christ to the world.......

@seekHm1st> This world we are in but not of....

@seekHm1st> Your world.

@seekHm1st> My world.

@seekHm1st> We need to share the love, the Gospel of Jesus Christ where we live. In our communities.

@seekHm1st> I am not a missionary in another country. Most of you aren't either.

@seekHm1st> But are we missionaries "to" other countries.

@seekHm1st> How often do we speak here with people from countries other than our own?

@seekHm1st> For many of us, via chat, it is almost an every night occurrence,

@seekHm1st> and we are in the position as always, of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

@seekHm1st> Have we really stopped to consider what a gift that is?

@seekHm1st> How many unrecognized chatters have come in to fall at the feet of the Lord?

@seekHm1st> Are we ready to help them to the crumbs?

@seekHm1st> Have we shown them the kind of grace that our Lord showed this amazing woman?

@seekHm1st> Let's be ready always, together, in season and out, to do just that.

@seekHm1st> Let's pray.

Dacia> amen!

@seekHm1st> Father in heaven, we ask that You would help us to learn from the faith of the woman in this passage.

@seekHm1st> to take this account in and keep it in our hearts

@seekHm1st> to know that we are privileged to come into your throne room in all reverence

@seekHm1st> and to bow our faces to the floor

@seekHm1st> and to ask in faith for You to heal us,

@seekHm1st> to heal others

@seekHm1st> to heal their souls

@seekHm1st> to restore them if they are willing, to a wonderful relationship with You

Dacia> yes Lord.

@seekHm1st> through the Masterful name of Your Son, Jesus Christ

@seekHm1st> Amen

Snapstur> Amen

Deacon> Amen

The_Nickless_Horseman> Amen

carol> amen

Dacia> amen and amen

Dacia> so be it!!!!

@seekHm1st> Thanks folks, for coming.